Employer 'Joint Offers' Rule

Generally, statutes and case law governing franchising emphasize the importance of good faith and fair dealing in franchise relationships. If a franchisor exercises too much control over the operations of its franchisees, however, the franchisor risks potential liability. A franchisor may also occasionally be held liable—under the doctrine of respondeat superior—for the tortious acts of the franchisees’

While doing some research I found that a franchise agreement is a binding legal contract that is signed between a franchisor and franchisee. A franchisor is the company owning the rights to grant franchises to franchisees, while a franchisee is a person or entity who is given the right to conduct business by a franchisor or licensor. The most important definition however is that of a franchise which is an authorization granted by the government or company to an individual or group allowing them to carry out certain commercial activities.

Franchisors are increasingly having to be more and more selective in the adoption of franchisees with factors such as economic climate and the potential difficulty with growth playing key factors in the decision making process. It is not simply an ability to grow which creates a successful Franchise and nor is it the desire of any franchisor to adopt every potential franchisee. Franchisors are becoming more and more scrutinising as the global economy declines. There is a general understanding within any franchised

Generally speaking, the NLRB’s role is to investigate any unfair labor practices that may be in violation of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (NLRA). NLRB decisions do not necessarily set precedent in the common law courts, however the rulings can be persuasive. If the common law were to pick up the new joint-employer standard and apply it to the franchise relationship, it would create a union bargaining power for franchisee employees to negotiate with corporate headquarters—access that has never before been allowed under national labor laws. Not only would there be new bargaining power, but franchisors may then be responsible for paying overtime, medical insurance, and reimbursing the business expenses of franchisee’s employees. Franchisors simply

Explain how a franchise could be considered a partnership. What makes a franchise agreement simpler than a partnership that you would start with another individual?

Often times, most of the employees are teenagers. Teenagers usually are willing to work for low prices and most of the time fast food industries don't require many skills. Due to many teenagers having jobs while still in school, Schlosser went into detail on how the regulations changed once teenagers became active members in the fast food industry. These regulations were put into place in order to protect the employed youth. Eric Schlosser also began to go into detail about how new franchises go up against old franchises. Most often then most, new franchises don’t last as long as old

The current system is such that each franchise is equipped with a manager who works under area supervision and is the only full time salaried employee, an assistant manager, a few night managers and roughly 18-20 other non-managerial employees all of whom work part-time with a minimum wage pay. Within this set the managers are

1. Franchisees gain numerous advantage when they purchase a franchise. First, while a franchisee may be opening a new store, it is part of an already established business and system. This means a franchisee has access to turnkey operations, allowing an increased speed to establishing and growing the business. Franchisees also get support for management and training activities, as well as financial assistance. Going hand in hand with this, a franchise already has an established brand name, quality of goods and service which have been standardized across the franchisor’s larger company, and national advertising programs from franchisors. Franchises also have large-volume, centralized buying power. A franchise has proven products, and

“Becoming a franchisee is an odd combination of starting your own business and going to work for someone else” (Schlosser 94).In Eric Schlosser’s Non-fiction book, Fast Food Nation, Schlosser reasons that fast food has widened the gap between the rich and the poor, started an obesity epidemic and propelled American cultural imperialism abroad. While the idea of a franchiser/ franchisee relationship appears to be nothing but beneficial, it has a serious drawback, which is the release/ acceptance of certain issues out of each party’s control. This, in turn causes other companies to try to develop new ways of forming this relationship. Subway, for example uses “Development Agents” to help ease tensions.

Firstly, it is important to remember the current situation of Trader Joe’s in USA, the company has over 400 stores in 30 states and is the leader in customer service in USA. However, the company is not on the top ten supermarkets in sales category. Additionally, Trader Joe’s just operates in USA and does not have experience in other international markets. (Peterson, 2013)

It has its advantages and disadvantages to franchise the business. It is a careful decision to make for anyone to invest a lot of money into a franchise and everyone should be comparing pros and cons.

Q1 – Understand the purpose of employment regulation and the way it is enforced in practice.

♦ Reliance on franchising "associate" stores and opening a few new company-owned stores as a means of expanding nationally and internationally. However, franchise licenses were granted only to candidates who have experience in multi-unit food establishments and who possess adequate capital to finance the opening of new stores in their assigned territory.

In order to best maximize their profits, the big fast food giant 's created the franchise system. This system allows the companies to maintain overall control of the product, and give them a guaranteed rate of return, while at the same time allowing local owners to create a low-wage work force best suited to local conditions. For us, as workers, that means our immediate employers are often small business owners, and franchise owners who plead poverty when we demand higher wages.

McDonald’s has extremely strict rules when it comes to awarding franchises. First, it is very costly to open a new location or purchase an existing location, with the median startup cost being $300,000 (Kalnins & Lafontaine, 2004, p. 750). As well, the company does an extensive background check on a variety of issues including credit history, business management experience, and the acceptance of the contractual agreement that the company provides. Because of these strict rules and the large amount of capital needed to purchase a location, “rates for franchise applicants are 1% for McDonald's” (Norton, 1988, p. 204). This is an extremely low acceptance rate and is even lower than McDonald’s chief competitor, Burger King, who accepts 1.5% percent of applicants (Norton, 1988, p. 199). These low numbers are understandable in the context of the business and risk that is involved. Though the franchise purchaser must pay a large amount of money to gain the rights to the restaurant, they truly have nothing to lose besides money because they are simply running another company’s business model as well as using their trademarks and logos. McDonald’s on the other hand, has a great amount at stake because they place the well being of an entire restaurant into the caretaking of an individual who simply purchased the rights for the store. If the store does poorly or if there are issues with customer service, it reflects