Google to fight NLRB over joint employer finding in D.C. circuit

Anne Lofaso, a professor in the University of Cincinnati College of Law, spoke with Bloomberg Law for an online story about a legal battle between Google LLC and a union representing YouTube contract workers.

Google LLC, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., says it has no obligation to bargain with the union and during oral arguments has challenged a National Labor Relations Board finding that it jointly employs contract staffers. The case is before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, reports Bloomberg Law.

The circuit court will likely determine whether the company must bargain with the Alphabet Workers Union, which represents workers directly employed by Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. The case may have implications with the D.C. Circuit weighing in on the NLRB’s regulations for joint employment. 

Bloomberg Law reports the District of Columbia Circuit mostly upheld an earlier version of the board’s joint employer standard in its 2018 decision in Browning-Ferris Industries of California v. NLRB.

The court ruled while the NLRB was developing its regulation that, years later, it applied to Google and Cognizant’s relationship, reports Bloomberg Law. The circuit court said in its opinion that the board’s rulemaking “must color within the common-law lines identified by the judiciary.”

Lofaso told Bloomberg Law that although the joint employer rule isn’t being directly challenged, the D.C. Circuit might say the standard clashes with circuit precedent—and send the case back to the NLRB to apply the common-law test it already told the board to use.

Lofaso, a former attorney for the National Labor Review Board, teaches courses in labor law, employment law and constitutional law.

Read the full Bloomberg Law story online.

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