A recent National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling may end up either turning some small business owners into corporate managers, or causing them to lose large numbers of their commercial customers.

In recent years, many employers, reluctant to expand their payrolls, have turned to using more contractors, subcontractors, and staffing agencies to meet their business needs for services and workers.

In late August, the NLRB, in a 3-2 decision, ruled that companies can now be held responsible for labor violations committed by the contractors and subcontractors they hire to do work for them, as well as employment/staffing agencies with whom they contract for employees that they use in their businesses. Of course, while many of these contractors, subcontractors, and staffing agencies are medium-sized or large businesses, many are small businesses.