Hearing of the Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee of the House Education and Workforce Committee - Expanding Joint Employer Status: What Does it Mean for Workers and Job Creators?

Hearing

Thank you, Chairman Roe.

I want to thank the witnesses for their thoughtful testimony. I can't help but notice this committee has met more than 17 times over the last three and a half years for hearings or markups on the activities of the NLRB. By comparison this Committee has not held a single hearing on raising the minimum wage, equal pay, job creation or how to continue to lower unemployment.

The focus of this morning's hearing is the National Labor Relations Board and the "joint employer" standard. Freedom of association and negotiating for improved working conditions are fundamental rights for all workers in this country--regardless of what type of employment they are in.

As an owner of a specialty printing shop for more than 26 years, I understand the challenges small businesses are facing. I also understand the responsibilities business owners have to their employees.

Splintered employment relationships should not be a shield for unscrupulous employers who want to deny workers their fundamental rights. Joint-employers should not be able to play hot-potato with their employees' livelihoods, or the livelihoods of their families.

As we turn the corner on 17-plus NLRB hearings and mark-ups, it seems that we should move our discussion to something more productive and recognize the realities facing today's workforce.

Too many Americans are trapped in precarious, unstable, and low-paying jobs with little or no recourse under the law. We must do more to address the serious challenges workers nationwide face.

This hearing is another attempt by my friends on the other side of the aisle to undermine the reputation of the NLRB and interfere with its legitimate authority.

At the last NLRB hearing held two months ago, we focused on the case of Browning-Ferris Industries. The Board continues to deliberate over the facts of the Browning case. The Board has called for briefs as it reviews the joint-employer standard.

This is completely within its jurisdiction and this hearing is not the appropriate place to try and adjudicate any Board decision currently under consideration.

A review of the joint-employer standard is timely, given the disturbing trends we are seeing in today's labor market. More and more, businesses are relying on temporary and contingent workers, franchisees, and other non-traditional forms of employment to limit their labor costs and exposure to liability.

While temporary employment is commonly seen as a path to permanent employment, increasingly it is not the case. There are now 2.87 million workers employed by temp agencies, and these workers fare much worse than others in the private sector:

-Temp workers make an average of $3.40 an hour less than their full-time counterparts.

-Temp workers have significantly less access to employer-provided benefits, with only 8 percent receiving health care benefits and only 9 percent receiving pension benefits through their jobs.

-Temp workers are also more likely to go without sick days, paid vacation, and other
benefits.

Perhaps most troubling is temp workers are often given insufficient job safety training. Forty-two percent of temp workers perform light industrial work. These construction and manufacturing workers have substantially higher rates of injury and higher on-the-job death rates. This is simply unacceptable.

Indirect employment relationships are also very common in the fast food industry, which almost exclusively uses a franchise model.

While franchisors claim to have no direct control over the terms and conditions of employment, they can prescribe a wide range of factors that affect one's workplace conditions, such as the number of workers at a franchise, what hours they work, and their training.

Some fast food chains, such as McDonald's, even provide franchisees with scheduling software that sets and monitor workers' schedules, tracks sales data, labor costs, the labor needs of the franchise, and reviews wages.

In many cases, fast food franchise agreements are so extensive that the only variable cost for a franchisee is labor.

In the few weeks we have remaining this session, I hope this Committee and this Congress will focus on the incredibly urgent priorities of the American people--raising the minimum wage, renewing unemployment insurance for the millions who still need it, stopping employment discrimination based on sexual-identity, ensuring paycheck fairness for women, and providing relief for the tens of millions of students and parents with student loan debt.

Thank you. I yield back.

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