As a Brightstar Care franchisee, what responsibility do I have for understanding and following wage and hour laws?
Brightstar_Care Franchise · 2025 FDDAnswer from 2025 FDD Document
You are an independent contractor and not our representative, partner, agent, or employee. You have sole responsibility for understanding and following wage and hour laws as well as all other state, local, and federal laws applicable to the Agency's operation and sole authority for your labor relations and employment practices, including, among other things, employee selection, promotion, termination, hours worked, hours scheduled, rates of pay, benefits, work assigned, discipline, adjustments of grievances and complaints, and working conditions. Agency employees are exclusively under your control at the Agency. We do not reserve the right and expressly disavow any right or ability to control those employment and personnel matters or your employees (including the Control Person, branch manager, DON, salesperson and/or other Key Positions). We are not the employer or joint employer of you or your Agency employees. You must communicate clearly with Agency employees in your employment agreements, human resource manuals, written and electronic correspondence, paychecks, and other materials that you (and only you) are their employer and that we, as the franchisor of BrightStar Agencies, and our affiliates are not their employer and do not engage in any employer-type activities (including those described above) for which only franchisees are responsible.
Source: Item 15 — OBLIGATION TO PARTICIPATE IN THE ACTUAL OPERATION OF THE FRANCHISE BUSINESS (FDD pages 79–80)
What This Means (2025 FDD)
According to Brightstar Care's 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document, as a franchisee, you are considered an independent contractor and are solely responsible for understanding and adhering to all wage and hour laws, as well as other state, local, and federal laws applicable to your Brightstar Care agency's operation. This also includes having sole authority over your agency's labor relations and employment practices.
This means you, as the franchisee, have complete control over all employment and personnel matters within your Brightstar Care agency. This includes employee selection, promotions, terminations, work schedules, pay rates, benefits, work assignments, disciplinary actions, and handling grievances and complaints. Brightstar Care explicitly disavows any right or ability to control these employment matters or your employees.
To ensure clarity, you must communicate to your agency employees in all relevant documents (employment agreements, HR manuals, correspondence, paychecks, etc.) that you are their employer and that Brightstar Care, as the franchisor, is not. This reinforces your role as the responsible party for all employment-related legal compliance, including wage and hour laws. This is a common arrangement in franchising, where franchisees are independent business owners responsible for their own operational compliance.