Courts and administrative tribunals are generally sensitive to the vulnerability of employees in employment relationships due to the often unequal bargaining power between employers and most employees. Various corporate structures, including franchise arrangements, that may be recognized for commercial law purposes, may not be recognized for employment law purposes, particularly if doing so would result in an injustice to vulnerable employees.
In franchise arrangements, franchisors might assume that only the franchisees are responsible for their employees. This is particularly true when the franchisor and franchisee have entered into a written agreement to this effect….