The NLRB Flips on Unionization of Contingent Workers
A recent opinion by the National Labor Relations Board overturned a ruling from the Clinton era which allowed the Board to include in a bargaining unit, employees who were joint employees of a staffing agency and an employer along with the employer's employees. In Oakwood Care Center 343 NLRB No. 76, Local 1199 of the SEIU sought to organize employees at a New York nursing home. The union sought to include in the bargaining unit employees who were directly employed by the nursing home and contingent workers who were jointly employed by a staffing agency and the employer. The Board now reverts back to a long-standing precedent that prohibits inclusion of the contingent workers into a bargaining unit without the employer's consent. The Board noted that because combining the two groups of employees would result in a multi-employer arrangement, such an arrangement cannot be done without the employer's approval. The decision is available on the NLRB website here.