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

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* * * OVERRULED IN PART ON OTHER GROUNDS by Alliance College-Ready Public Schools (2017) PERB Decision No. 2545. * * *

A single employer status exists where two nominally separate entities are actually part of a single integrated enterprise so that there is, in reality, only a single employer. The Board examines to the following four factors to determine the existence of a single employer relationship: (1) functional integration of operations; (2) centralized control of labor relations; (3) common management; and (4) common ownership. Although all four factors need not be present and although no single factor is controlling, the first three factors are ordinarily deemed more critical than the fourth. A joint employer status exists 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. Unlike a single employer situation, joint employer status does not depend upon the existence of a single integrated enterprise; instead, it assumes the enterprises are independent legal entities that historically have chosen to jointly address important aspects of their employer-employee relationship. Thus, joint employer cases focus on the level of control exerted over the employees by the enterprises in question.