Discussion for article #225685
Cue Jim Cramer/FoxBusiness meltdown in 3… 2…
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Andrew Napolitano might even weigh in.
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This is very important and correct ruling. The multinational franchisors (not just McDonald’s) dictate policies, including forcing franchises to sell “Dollar Menus”, rather than charge the outrageous price of, say, a buck and a quarter and pay the workers a living wage.
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It goes beyond that. McDonald’s can extract high rents from the franchisees, and force them to renovated their buildings regardless of how it affects their bottom lines. Corporate can make it almost impossible for a location to make a profit, forcing them to either fold or resort to do things like keeping labor rates as low as possible, for example. McDonald’s should definitely be on the hook for the wage levels of their employees.
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One of the main uses of the franchise system is to insulate the corporations from their responsibilities as employers. The companies like leaving the direct screwing of the worker to the franchisee.
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I’m all for fairness in the workplace but this seems kinda…unfair. Especially, if Franchises are Indep. Owned.
the argument “We control absolutely everything in our franchisees’ restaurants – except wages and working conditions, over which we have no control at all” didn’t fly.
Now how about all the big companies who employ “independent contractors” and “staffing services” to insulate them from liability.
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Franchises are individually owned, but the corp still maintains a lot of control. That’s what makes it a franchise instead of a separate company altogether. Paulw is exactly right. Specifically, I believe one of the complaints against the corp is that they micromanaged time cards and payroll, so corp mgmt can hardly claim that they didn’t realize workers weren’t being paid.
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A small victory for the working Joe/Josephine.
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When the franchisor requires the franchisee to buy all of its equipment and supplies from it, dictates the prices, and basically renders every variable cost other than labor invariable, and in particular, where it actually has a labor cost to sales requirement built in to is system,it’s responsible for the resulting labor conditions as a matter of causation. The idea that it shouldn’t also be legally and morally responsible for results effectively determined by the terms and conditions it imposes on franchisees is repulsive.
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RadicalCentrist. Hah! That used to be my handle way back in the early days of interweb chat. However today, I no longer consider myself a centrist, but the radical part has remained…
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Good! The pitchforks are just starting to come out! No gated community is strong enough to withstand 100,000 hungry and angry peasants! (1789).
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I hope so. I seriously hope that the Market Basket saga that is playing out here in the northeast catches on, and workers realize that it’s they who hold the ultimate power to decide their fate, not some bunch of shareholder leisure class leaches.
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What’s a Labor Board?
Something a midwife would use?
These franchisors exercise de facto control over their franchisee stores. You do what they tell you or lose your franchise.
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Excellent!
I wonder how this will be overruled, overturned, or otherwise blocked.
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It means something to be able to represent your shop as part of a corporation. My sister was living up in Maine, a fellow was running a hotel, he was doing a horrible job of it, the hotel owners went through it and before they left, stripped their name off of everything. Believe me, if a corporation thinks you’re doing such a lousy job that you’re reducing the value of their name, you’ll lose the use of that name, lickety-split!
McDonalds, the worst food on the planet. I don’t get it, it’s awful.
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a decision that could hold McDonald’s responsible for conditions in franchisees’ stores
One would think that maintaining certain standards would be an integral part of maintaining the reputation of the corporation. I guess we can see the value McD’s puts on that. Their overall product can best be summed up by the name the assigned to one of their more recent items - The McWrap, an name they probably didn’t “sound-test” too carefully.
On another note, I am thinking that “Joint Employer” will probably take on a whole new meaning in the era of pot legalization.
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