The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives on Friday voted to repeal a federal labor board rule set to take effect in February that would treat companies as the employers of many contract and franchise workers and require them to bargain with those workers’ unions.
The House voted 206-177 to nix the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rule, which has been heavily criticized by business groups. The vote sends the proposal to the Senate where Democrats hold a one-seat majority but Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, has said he opposes the rule.
The resolution was introduced under the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to repeal agency rules through a majority vote in both houses.
The White House earlier this week said Democratic President Joe Biden would veto the resolution if it passes both houses of Congress. A two-thirds majority would be required to overcome a White House veto.
The rule would treat companies as “joint employers” of contract and franchise workers when they have control over key working conditions such as pay, scheduling, discipline and supervision, even if that control is indirect or not exercised.
A company deemed a joint employer must bargain with unions representing contract and franchise workers and can be held liable for violating those workers’ rights under federal labor law.
Representative Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, the Republican chair of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, in a speech ahead of Friday’s vote called the NLRB policy an “anti-freedom, anti-growth” rule that would compel small businesses to come under “big government regulation and union boss control.”