PARTIES; DEFINITIONS; WHO IS AN EMPLOYER? – Joint Employer, Single Employer, and Alter Ego Doctrines

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* * * OVERRULED IN PART by County of Ventura (2018) PERB Decision No. 2600-M, where the Board held a public entity with a right of control maintains its status as an employer regardless of the level of actual control it decides to exercise at any given time as long as it shares influence over, or co-determines, one or more terms or conditions of employment. * * *

A joint employer situation arises where two or more employers exert significant control over the same employees -- where from the evidence it can be shown that they share or co-determine those matters governing essential terms and conditions of employment. A joint employer theory does not depend upon the existence of a single integrated enterprise; rather, it assumes the enterprises are independent legal entities that have “historically chosen to handle jointly . . . important aspects of their employer-employee relationship.” The central focus in such cases is the level of control exerted over the employees by the enterprises in question.