Skip to main content

Updated: Buffalo Bills Cheerleader Lawsuit Obtains Class Action Certification


Back in April 2014, five former Buffalo Bills cheerleaders brought a wage and hour suit against the team on the grounds that they were not paid minimum wage for their work.  (From Pom Poms to the Courtroom, Pt. 3: Buffalo Bills Edition).  

Recently, the judge in the case ruled that "all Buffalo Bills cheerleaders and ambassadors since April 2008" can join the suit.  This class certification could potentially have a major impact in so much that Bills cheerleaders from 2008 - 2014 will now be allowed to join the class action.  

The Bills have continued to argue that the cheerleaders are independent contractors rather than employees.  However, the judge held the cheerleaders were not independent contractors as based upon the cheerleader handbook from 2013 - 2014, everything from appearance to hygiene were closely watched and controlled by the team.  

Note, since the filing of the lawsuit, the Buffalo Bills cheerleaders have remained inactive.  Given that this case is likely to stretch on for longer than many expected, I would not be surprised if we might have seen the last of cheerleaders on the sideline in Buffalo for quite some time.



Comments

Post a Comment

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,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Utah Non-Compete Bill Falters in House

Last month, a non-compete bill sponsored by Representative Brian Greene (Republican from Pleasant Grove) & up for vote in the Utah House failed to make it through the Legislature.  The bill sought to ban enforcement of non-competes if they came after a worker was already employed, given no compensation (such as a bonus or promotion) for signing the non-compete, and laid off within six months.  However, by a 22 - 49 vote, the bill was resoundingly defeated after some business groups lobbied to kill the non-compete bill.  One group in particular, The Free Enterprise Utah coalition, argued that the Utah State Legislature should hold off on any changes to non compete laws in the state until a survey about non competes was done among Utah businesses.  Representative Greene had countered this claim and argued that a survey was not needed to show that the current non compete laws in the states allowed many businesses, including some small high tech companies i...
Post a Comment
Read more

What I've Been Reading This Week

Recently, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Commissioner, Chai Feldblum, had her re-nomination on the brink, after Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee took steps to block it .  Readers might have heard that late last week, Commissioner Feldblum's re-nomination quietly slipped away and she tweeted out a thank you to supporters and friends, acknowledging that her time at the EEOC was over.  While there has not been much in the way of a further update in regard to that ongoing saga, we wait to see how things will play out at the EEOC, now that it has lost a quorum until additional Commissioners are confirmed by the Senate. For the time being, there are other developments for readers to review this week.  In particular, I call attention to the article on managing a wage & hour audit by the Department of Labor as well as steps an employer can take to better ensure compliance with the ADA. As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week. ...
Post a Comment
Read more