WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 (UPI) — An independent U.S. government labor agency believes that college football players are effectively “statutory employees” of the schools they play for, and that some restrictions placed on them are illegal.
That’s the conclusion reached by the National Labor Relations Board in a memorandum drafted last month concerning student-athletes on Northwestern University’s football team. The board’s findings were disclosed last week.
The NLRB said Northwestern must eliminate such unlawful restrictions on athletes — such as bans on social media communication, speaking with the media and discussing health and safety issues.
The memo, however, may only apply to private universities since the NLRB only has authority over private employers, which public schools are not. The board in August made a similar judgment concerning graduate students on private campuses.
There are 17 private universities that play in the Football Bowl Subdivision, the sport’s top level — including Notre Dame, Stanford and the University of Southern California.
The labor board’s position could mostly affect players’ use of social media. Many schools have prohibitions on players communicating via social media channels during the football season.
Northwestern once had a policy barring players from speaking to media on their own. The NLRB’s new rules, though, would invalidate a restriction like that in the future.
Though the NLRB concluded that collegiate athletes are employees, the memo doesn’t address the issue of financial compensation.
Recent reforms in collegiate athletics now allow student-athletes to receive a “cost of attendance” stipend. However, a player at a private institution could potentially cite the new NLRB ruling in a future complaint that they, as employees, are not being paid — and contend that’s an unfair labor practice.
The NLRB ruling is the result of a complaint filed against Northwestern last year by a California-based labor lawyer.
This is not the first time Northwestern’s football team has been at the center of an issue questioning the amateurism of collegiate sports. In 2014, the school’s football team voted whether or not it wished to unionize. Last year, it was also the NLRB that blocked that attempt.
