Skip to Content

In Case You Missed It

ICYMI: Dat Dog Tells Washington That Labor Policy Threatens Expansion Plans

Dat Dog, the gourmet hot dog joint that opened on Freret Street in 2011, was one of several businesses asking the House Committee on Education and the Workforce for clarification on joint employer policy.

 


By CityBusiness Staff

Congressional lawmakers looking at the impact of an Obama-era labor policy heard Tuesday from a New Orleans-based business concerned that it could derail plans to expand in the Gulf South.

Dat Dog, the gourmet hot dog joint that opened on Freret Street in 2011, was one of several businesses asking the House Committee on Education and the Workforce for clarification on joint employer policy.

 

Courtesy datdog.com

Under the Obama administration, the Labor Department significantly broadened the definition of a joint employer, and the National Labor Relations Board said a company could be considered a joint employer even if it had only indirect or unexercised control.

In previous years, the NLRB had said a company had to have direct control over the actions of a subcontractor or franchisee’s employees in order to be considered a joint employer.

Jerry Reese, who handles franchise development for Dat Dog, said the new standard could hurt plans to expand in Louisiana and beyond. The restaurant has put new restaurants in Lafayette and Hattiesburg, Mississippi and announced this year it is looking for franchisees in the Gulf South.

“Implementing our expansion plan will certainly depend on Congress’s willingness to help address regulatory obstacles that make the future growth of small businesses, like ours, uncertain,” Reese said. “As with any business that is fortunate enough to grow, we now face new risks. Joint employer is the most prominent risk on our minds.”

“Make no mistake about it: this policy disproportionately affects small businesses,” he added. “Big corporations have the resources, the attorneys and the economies of scale to adapt to joint employer … It’s the small employers like Dat Dog that may run out of resources before we even get started.”

U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-North Carolina, who chairs the committee, said it supports rolling back the joint employer policy to what it was in previous years.

 


Stay Connected