NLRB memo says college athletes are employees
College athletes who make millions for their schools moved one step closer to gaining the rights afforded private sector workers when the top lawyer for the National Labor Relations Board said in a memo they should be treated as employees of the school.
The memo issued on Wednesday by NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo doesn’t immediately change the current dynamic, in which players rake in millions for their schools, conferences and the NCAA in exchange for no more than a scholarship and cost of attendance stipend.
But it lays a potential path for athletes to unionize or otherwise bargain over their working conditions, including pay.
Gabe Feldman, the director of the Tulane Sports Law Program, said the memo is “yet another threat” to the NCAA and its business model.
“All signs point to an increasingly at-risk and fragile system of college athletics,” he said.
Here are some things to know about the NLRB memo:
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
The NLRB protects the rights of private-sector workers — but not public ones. College athletes have not been covered because they weren’t considered employees of the schools.
In 2015, members of the Northwestern football team attempted to organize as university employees; ultimately the board turned their efforts aside — not because it disagreed with them, but because creating different rules for public schools and private ones “would not promote stability in labor relations.”
WHAT CHANGED?
For one, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously this spring that the NCAA cannot limit educationrelated benefits. Soon after, under pressure from new state laws due to go into effect, the NCAA cleared the way for athletes to earn money based on their celebrity.
Abruzzo also said that collective action by athletes in response to the killing of George Floyd, as well as efforts to salvage their seasons during the pandemic, demonstrated that they “better understand their value in generating billions of dollars in revenue for their colleges and universities, athletic conferences, and the NCAA.”
“Players at academic institutions who engage in concerted activities to improve their working conditions have the right to be protected from retaliation,” she wrote.
WHY NOW?
College sports have become, appropriately enough, a political football in Washington as control of the NLRB has swung from the Democratic administration of Barack Obama to Republican Donald Trump and back to Democrat Joe Biden.
Wednesday’s memo reinstated an opinion that had been issued by an Obama appointee and rescinded by his Trump-appointed successor. Abruzzo was a deputy general counsel who said she was “intimately involved” in writing the original opinion.
Although football in the five largest conferences is college sports’ biggest money-maker, the memo would extend protections to all athletes who meet the legal definition of an employee: someone who performs services for an institution and is subject to its control. Those in non-revenue sports could bargain over working conditions, though most would be hard-pressed to argue for pay.
The majority of the biggest college athletic programs are public schools and not under the purview of the NLRB. But Abruzzo said in an interview with The Associated Press that the NCAA and its conferences, which are private, could be considered joint employers if they “directly and immediately“control the working terms and conditions.
WHAT HAPPENS NOW?
Nothing, until another team attempts to unionize or a player makes an unfair labor practice claim. Abruzzo said that if the NLRB receives another case like the Northwestern one, it would likely be decided differently.
SO WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?
The schools say paying top athletes will create an imbalance within teams and drain money from nonrevenue sports like field hockey and fencing. Paying players at private schools — or even some of them — and not public ones would also create a competitive imbalance.
WHAT CAN THE NCAA DO ABOUT IT?
The NCAA, which oversees some 450,000 athletes, denied that they are employees.