For three hours each night, a policeman appears out of thin air in a busy park in Seoul, South Korea. His presence has, according to police data, reduced crime in the park by 22%. The policeman, however, has never arrested anyone, and he doesn’t even move around the park.

That’s because he’s a hologram.

The police chief attributes the program’s success to “citizens’ perceived safety,” although I’m not sure why anyone would perceive themselves safer in the presence of a hologram. Maybe I should not be so cynical. If it works, it works.

A new federal bill seeks to increase employers’ perceived safety, but without holograms.

The Save Local Business Act, H.R. 4366, would amend the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to create a uniform test for joint employer status. By adding a new joint employer test to the statutes, Congress would prevent the NLRB and DOL from trying to change the test every time there’s a new party in the White House.

The Act is a pro-business bill. If it passes, joint employer status would be much harder to establish.

Under the proposed text, joint employer status could exist “only if each employer directly, actually, and immediately, exercises significant control over the essential terms and conditions of employment of the employees of the other employer.”

“Essential terms and conditions” would mean, for example, “hiring such employees, discharging such employees, determining the rate of pay and benefits of such employees, supervising such employees on a day-to-day basis, assigning such employees a work schedule, position, or task, or disciplining such employees.”

The bill is sponsored by James Comer (R-Ky.). It was introduced July 14, 2025. Previous versions of the bill were introduced in 2021 and 2023. Obviously, they failed.

With Republicans controlling the House, passage in the House seems possible, but the likelihood of getting 60 votes in the Senate is pretty remote.

So the bill, while it seems good for businesses, is probably the legislative equivalent of a Korean holographic police officer. It looks nice but exerts no real authority.

You can track the status of the bill here.

© 2025 Todd Lebowitz, posted on WhoIsMyEmployee.com, Exploring Issues of Independent Contractor Misclassification and Joint Employment. All rights reserved.