By Susan Prince, JD, M.S.L.
A joint employment relationship and the responsibilities that go with it can be very confusing for employers. Just establishing whether or not a joint employment relationship even exists can be a point of contention. Therefore, on January 20, 2016, the federal Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division (WHD) released Administrator’s Interpretation No. 2016-1: Joint employment under the Fair Labor Standards Act and Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act.
 |
- Fact Sheet 35: Joint Employment under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (MSPA).
- Fact Sheet 28N: Joint Employment and Primary and Secondary Employer Responsibilities under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
The following information includes excerpts from these documents in order to provide an overview of the guidance.
What is joint employment? According to the DOL, joint employment exists when an employee is employed by two or more employers such that the employers are responsible, both individually and jointly, for compliance with a statute. Both the FLSA and the MSPA provide for joint employment. The FLSA and MSPA share the same definition of employment, which includes “to suffer or permit to work.”