If this theory prevails, it could have implications for college sports as a whole. The NLRA applies to private employers. State laws govern public employees, and many states have laws that do not allow public employees to unionize.
USC is a private school. The NCAA and Pac-12 are private, nonprofit organizations. If the NCAA and a major college athletic conference turn out to be employers of athletes, then “every college athlete has a private employer,” Gabe Feldman, director of Tulane’s sports law program and vice president of Tulane University for NCAA compliance. .
As such, it would open the door to the possibility of unionization and collective bargaining for public school athletes, Feldman said.
A efforts to unionize Northwestern University football players ended in August 2015 , when the full NLRB declared that the board had no jurisdiction over public schools, attacking Northwest’s efforts would run counter to the NLRA’s charge that the board creates environments of stable and predictable work in various industries. Under a joint employer theory, this problem might disappear.
At the NLRB LA office
The complaint cited excerpts from the USC Athletics Department’s Student-Athlete Handbook and its Social Media Policy and Guidelines for Student-Athletes, which establish a variety of regulations that athletes must follow.
It also alleged that USC, the Pac-12 and the NCAA “intentionally misclassified (p)layers as non-employee student-athletes in order to deprive them” of their right under the NLRA to organize or to bargain collectively and “discourage (them) from engaging in protected concerted activities.”
On the side of USC, the Pac-12 and the NCAA
Each of the three entities filed an argument in favor of rejection, separately or collectively offering a set of arguments including:
What’s happening now
What was initially expected to be a multi-week trial had to be rearranged due to a conflict in the judge’s schedule. Instead, there will be up to three days of pretrials this week, followed by testimony Dec. 18-20, Jan. 22-Feb. 2, and, if necessary, Feb. 26-29.
An administrative law judge’s decision may be appealed to the full National Labor Relations Board, and a decision of the board may be appealed to a federal court.
