The U.S. National Labor Relations Board is nearing its extended deadline for public comments on proposed changes to the joint-employer standard that could further complicate relationships between companies working together, particularly hotel operators and third-party vendors.

The proposed rule would designate two or more employers as joint employers if they share or co-determine those matters governing employees’ essential terms and conditions of employment, according to the NLRB’s proposal. Those factors could include wages, benefits and other compensation, work and scheduling, hiring and discharge, discipline and assignment, among other others.

The changes to the standard would also open membership in a hotel's labor union to temporary workers.

In a response filed with the government on Dec. 6, the American Hotel & Lodging Association opposed the rule changes, arguing they would place substantial and unwarranted burdens on our members’ ability to enter into routine contracts for needed services with third-party vendors, such as to provide cleaning and landscaping services, among other things, and would inject uncertainty into the economy when it teeters on the edge of a recession.

Read the full article at HotelNewsNow (part of CoStar)