Center for Innovative Hospitality Labor and Employment Relations

The recent so-called “joint employer” ruling has created a human resources earthquake for franchisors and companies that lease employees. The NLRB’s ruling that Browning-Ferris Industries (BFI) employees were joint employees with Leadpoint, a staffing services firm, was based on the concept of each firm’s indirect control over the employees. Invited participants from academe and industry […]

As a Cornell graduate or friend, you save $475.00 on the only conference that delivers legal and HR guidance for your industry. The HR in Hospitality Conference, March 13 – 16 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, features sessions focusing on how wage and hour changes affect franchisor-franchisee relationships, the effect of the Noel Canning decision on the hospitality industry, the […]

Members of the Cornell Institute for Hospitality Labor and Employment Relations contributed their time and knowledge to the fourth annual Hotel and Lodging Legal Summit at Georgetown University, one of the foremost conferences on U.S. hospitality law. Several members of the CIHLER advisory board and associates of CIHLER member firms, as well as Director David […]

Center director David Sherwyn was the moderator in November of a Continuing Legal Education Panel at the Hotel and Lodging Legal Summit at Georgetown Law School. The panel examined the legal aspects of union organizing through card-check neutrality agreements. Sherwyn has examined this issue in detail in a report published by the Cornell Center for […]

A National Labor Relations Board ruling that expands the definition of joint employment may well ironically decrease the involvement of franchisors in the franchisees’ employment actions—to the detriment of all parties. In an article published in the American University Business Law Review, Cornell Professors Steven Carvell and David Sherwyn examine the NLRB ruling in the case […]

On February 21st CIHLER held its 2nd annual labor relations roundtable. Professor David Sherwyn, the John and Melissa Ceriale Professor of Hospitality Human Resources and CIHLER Academic Director, who led the roundtable, said that it was incredible to have industry “competitors” sitting in one room, agreeing and disagreeing in a collaborative and intellectual way. The […]

Center academic director David Sherwyn, who is a professor of law at the School of Hotel Administration, contributed a guest post to the “OnLabor” blog. He examined a recent decision by the National Labor Relations Board that declared McDonald’s is a joint employer with its franchisees. The board’s decision rests on the level of control […]