Citing “changing economic circumstances, particularly the recent dramatic growth in contingent employment relationships,” in Browning-Ferris Industries of California, Inc., 362 NLRB No. 186 (August 27, 2015), a 3-2 National Labor Relations Board majority (Pearce, Hirozawa, McFerran) significantly revised and broadened the standard for assessing joint-employer status under the National Labor Relations
On August 17, 2015, nearly seventeen months after a National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) Regional Director ruled that Northwestern grant-in-aid scholarship football players were considered employees under the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”), the NLRB unanimously changed course and declined to exert jurisdiction over the athletes’ petition, thereby reversing the lower decision. In Northwestern University