Since 1985, entities have had to actively hire, fire and supervise workers to be considered a joint employer under federal law. The 2015 NLRB decision was a throwback to the broader definition of joint employers that dominated labor law until 1985. In a legal brief, the office of NLRB’s general counsel, Richard Griffin, argued that the traditional standard was legally correct and more appropriate for the modern workforce.

“One of the types of situations we say calls out for the more traditional use of the joint-employer standard is the current contingent workforce situation — with temp agencies that provide people not for a day, not for two days, but frequently three or four years,” Griffin said in a 2014 speech to law students.

In his speech, Griffin noted that the relationship between franchisers and franchisees is a special case. Franchisers have to exert some control over their franchisees in order to protect their trademark and brand. A Domino’s Pizza in Singapore has to be more or less the same as one in St. Louis. So some parent companies dictate everything from prices and menus to how establishments look and workers dress.