M.B. Sturgis (and Jeffboat) 331 N.L.R.B. No. 173 (8/25/2000) Is a proposed bargaining unit that includes or is composed of employees that are employed jointly by a user employer and a supplier employer a multi-employer unit such that the consent of both the user and supplier employers is required for the Board to find the unit appropriate or is it a joint employer relationship?

Joint Employer Relationship A joint employer relationship exists for one or more employees when the TCE of those employees are jointly determined by more than one employer. Supplier and user ers would be joint employers if, for example, supplier er determined the wage to be paid and the user employer determined the duties to be performed and provided supervision

EVENING NEWS M.B STURGIS TYPICAL CASE Employees Employees Employees With consent of both employers

Board Decision A joint employer relationship is not the same as multi-employer bargaining and the Board will not require the consent of the both employers (supplier and user) in order to find a unit of single-employer employees and joint employer employees appropriate based on standard community of interest criteria.

Rationale “The scope of a bargaining unit is delineated by the work being performed by a particular employer”(p. 8). Whether the work is performed by solely employed or jointly employee employees, it is done for a single employer. All employees in the unit are employed by the employer.

Fundamental Questions Should board give greater weight to interest of each joint employer in not being bound in its LR by an entity to which it has not ceded authority or to the interests of ees in having the choice of being represented for CB purposes in a unit of ees with which they have a community of interest? Should the decision be viewed from the perspective of the day-to-day work situation, as employees might view it, or from the perspective of organizational structure, as the employer might view it?