{"id":6489,"date":"2019-03-25T23:28:38","date_gmt":"2019-03-25T23:28:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2019\/03\/25\/franchise\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T18:15:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T18:15:06","slug":"franchise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2019\/03\/25\/franchise\/","title":{"rendered":"Cornell Professors Call for 21st Century Standard for Franchise System Employment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A National Labor Relations Board ruling that expands the definition of joint employment may well ironically decrease the involvement of franchisors in the franchisees\u2019 employment actions\u2014to the detriment of all parties. In an article published in the\u00a0American University Business Law Review<\/em>, Cornell Professors Steven Carvell and David Sherwyn examine the NLRB ruling in the case of Browning-Ferris Industries (BFI). They conclude that the ruling was apparently intended to push employment responsibility up to the franchisor, the opposite of one likely outcome. The BFI ruling involved employee leasing arrangements, but could be interpreted as also applying to franchising systems, effectively making both franchisors and franchisees joint employers of workers. However, Carvell and Sherwyn point out that franchisors might be adept at avoiding this mandate, which would have the negative outcome of reducing the franchisors\u2019 involvement in ensuring lawful treatment of their systems\u2019 employees. They also see another potential negative outcome of the NLRB ruling, which would be to \u201cseverely compromise the franchise model.\u201d Instead, they call for a new, contemporary standard to replace a patchwork of common law dating back as far five centuries. The goal would be to allow franchisors expressly to oversee their franchisees\u2019 employment activities to ensure that all employees are treated appropriately under the law, while at the same time retaining the basic relationship of a franchise system, in which the franchisor is responsible for brand management and franchisees are responsible for daily operation of individual restaurants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A National Labor Relations Board ruling that expands the definition of joint employment may well ironically decrease the involvement of franchisors in the franchisees\u2019 employment actions\u2014to the detriment of all…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[161],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[],"class_list":["post-6489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-posts","organizational_unit-cihler","organizational_unit-centers-institutes"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCornell Professors Call for 21st Century Standard for Franchise System Employment - Cornell Business Centers & Institutes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A National Labor Relations Board ruling that expands the definition of joint employment may well ironically decrease the involvement of franchisors in the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2019\/03\/25\/franchise\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cornell Professors Call for 21st Century Standard for Franchise System Employment - Cornell Business\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A National Labor Relations Board ruling that expands the definition of joint employment may well ironically decrease the involvement of franchisors in the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2019\/03\/25\/franchise\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Centers & Institutes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-03-25T23:28:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-07-14T18:15:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Shirley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Shirley\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/2019\\\/03\\\/25\\\/franchise\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/2019\\\/03\\\/25\\\/franchise\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Shirley\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6460c1e77a53bc33da466385463d260c\"},\"headline\":\"Cornell Professors Call for 21st Century Standard for Franchise System Employment\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-03-25T23:28:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-14T18:15:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/2019\\\/03\\\/25\\\/franchise\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":253,\"articleSection\":[\"Blog Posts\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/2019\\\/03\\\/25\\\/franchise\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/business.cornell.edu\\\/centers\\\/2019\\\/03\\\/25\\\/franchise\\\/\",\"name\":\"Cornell Professors Call for 21st Century Standard for Franchise System Employment - 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