Our Franchise Industry Group is out with a new bulletin this week, discussing the recent decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Williams v. Jani-King.

The plaintiffs in this case, former franchisees, claim that they and other franchisees are actually misclassified "employees" of Jani-King, the franchisor.

Although the court hasn't made a final decision on that issue, it did affirm a decision allowing the lawsuit to proceed as a class action. Don Prophete and Jeff Rosin have an excellent analysis of the decision and explain why the dissent got it right.

Image Credit: From flickr, Creative Commons license, by Jelene Morris.