\On February 25, 2020, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) announced a final rule modifying an earlier test, developed in Board decisions, to determine when a franchisor or a user of contracted services will be considered a joint employer along with the actual employer and, thus, subject to labor law obligations, including the requirement to bargain with the employees’ union. Under the rule, a person or entity will be considered a joint employer only if the person or entity “possess[es] and exercise[s] such substantial direct and immediate control over one or more essential terms or conditions of their employment as would warrant finding that the entity meaningfully affects matters relating to the employment relationship with those employees.” This test scales back the Board’s 2015 decision in Browning-Ferris Industries of California (“Browning-Ferris”), under which a person or entity would be considered a joint employer merely based on the right to control the terms and conditions of employment, irrespective of whether such control is directly exercised or exercised at all. The revised test provides much-needed clarity and flexibility to entities that use the services of vendors with employees and for franchisors that want to have some oversight of the operations of their franchisees’ operations without becoming joint employers.