McDonald’s Gets Win in Labor Case Backed by Fight for $15 (2)

McDonald’s Corp. has won a huge victory in a multiyear legal battle over whether it should share responsibility for alleged labor violations in its franchisees’ restaurants, a case that posed a major threat to the franchise model underlying one of the largest employers in the world.

The federal labor board in a 2-1 ruling Dec. 12 ordered an agency judge to approve a roughly $170,000 settlement between McDonald’s franchisees and their workers that also absolves the fast food giant from any direct responsibility as a joint employer—the central goal of Obama administration officials who initiated the prosecution. The Republican majority ...