You have /5 articles left.
Sign up for a free account or log in.
The general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board issued a memo Wednesday asserting that “certain” college and university athletes are employees and should have the right to unionize, among other protections.
“Players at academic institutions perform services for institutions in return for compensation and subject to their control,” Jennifer Abruzzo wrote. Federal laws and NLRB policies, she continued, “fully support the conclusion that certain Players at Academic Institutions are statutory employees, who have the right to act collectively to improve their terms and conditions of employment.”
The declaration by Abruzzo signals that the NLRB, under the Biden administration, will pick up where the Obama administration left off on the contentious issue of whether college athletes are employees who can unionize. The NLRB in early 2017 issued a memo stating that football players at private universities that compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s highest level were employees, but it declined to intervene in a specific case involving Northwestern University. That memo was withdrawn later that year by the Trump administration.
In explaining her judgment, Abruzzo noted recent changes in the landscape surrounding athletes’ economic and other rights, including June’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that permitted some payments to athletes. She specifically cited Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s concurrence that harshly criticized the NCAA’s stance on athletes’ rights.
She also sent a warning to colleges, saying that classifying players as “student-athletes” leads those players to believe they are not employees, which can chill employee rights. “Therefore, in appropriate cases, I will pursue an independent violation … where an employer misclassifies players at academic institutions as student-athletes.”
This is a breaking news story that will be updated.
