In Short
The Situation: Faced with a tight labor market, U.S. employers in the food industry are increasingly relying upon temporary labor to meet their staffing needs.
The Result: Temporary labor presents additional legal and labor relations challenges for food industry employers, including unforeseen joint-employer liability and an increased risk of unionization among nontemporary employee populations.
Looking Ahead: Food industry employers that utilize temporary labor must be cognizant of the legal and labor relations risks temporary labor presents and take meaningful steps to mitigate those risks.
From farm and food processing to food service, the global food industry has been rattled by labor shortages. The U.S. food industry has increasingly responded by relying on temporary labor to fill workforce gaps. Temporary labor is costly, with high markups on workers' hourly rates, high turnover, and reduced productivity. Temporary labor also poses significant legal and labor relations risks that food industry employers should take steps to mitigate.
Principal among those risks is joint-employer liability. Under the joint-employer doctrine, both the staffing agency and user of temporary labor may be held jointly and severally liable for employment law violations involving temporary employees, including under antidiscrimination, wage-hour, wage payment, employee representation, employee privacy, and other employment laws.
Although the definition of "joint employer" varies...
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