Skip to main content

Strike Three! Three Former Minor Leaguers Sue Over Alleged FLSA Violations


Recently, three former minor leaguers sued Major League Baseball, Bud Selig (MLB Commissioner), and three MLB teams over alleged FLSA violations.  Specifically, the Plaintiffs allege that MLB failed to pay overtime and minimum wages in violation of the FLSA and various state laws.  Specifically, Plaintiffs alleged that minor leaguers’ salaries have increased only 75 percent since 1976, compared to an increase of more than 2,000 percent in the major leagues.  Plaintiffs also claimed that most minor leaguers earn between $3,000 and $7,500 for the season, despite working over 50 (and sometimes more than 70) hours per week, including workouts and extensive travel time and also received no wages at all during training periods.

In bringing the suit, Plaintiffs also seek to form a collective action for violations of state labor laws.  

While an interesting argument, this one could take a while to sort out as it works its way through the California courts.  Sit back, relax, and grab a cold one, we're only in the top of the first inning here.  

A copy of the complaint can be found here:  http://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.orrick.com/files/Senne-v-MLB.pdf

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum, it was noted that emplo

Happening Tomorrow: Connecticut’s Minimum Wage Increases

For those employers and employees alike in Connecticut, mark your calendars as tomorrow, the minimum wage rate increases in the state from $13/hour to $14/hour. This wage hike comes after Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont had signed Public Act 19-4 into law in 2019 which progressively raised the state’s hourly minimum wage rate every year for five years.  In fact, next year, the hourly wage rate will top out at $15/hour.  Beginning in January of 2024, the hourly wage rate will be indexed to the employment cost index. For additional information:   https://portal.ct.gov/Office-of-the-Governor/News/Press-Releases/2022/06-2022/Governor-Lamont-Reminds-Residents-That-Minimum-Wage-Is-Scheduled-To-Increase-on-Friday

What I’ve Been Reading This Week

A few years ago, I remember when the “Fight for $15” movement was taking off around the country.  Lo and behold, it appears that a $15/hour minimum wage is not the stopping point, which should be no surprise.  As the below article notes, New York is aggressively moving to ramp up hourly wage rates even higher.  While all the  below articles are worth a read, I called particular attention to that one. As always, below are a couple article that caught my eye this week. Disney World Workers Reject Latest Contract Offer Late last week, it was announced that workers at Disney World had rejected the most recent contract offer from the company, calling on their employer to do better.  As Brooks Barnes at The New York Times writes, the unions that represent about 32,000 workers at Disney World reported their members resoundingly rejected the 5 year contract offer which would have seen workers receive a 10% raise and retroactive increased back pay.  While Disney’s offer would have increased pa