NCAA Found to Have Violated Labor Rights of Student Athletes
- US labor agency counsel deems NCAA an employer of players
- Case could open path to let college athletes vote to unionize
Photographer: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
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The US National Labor Relations Board’s general counsel office has determined for the first time that the National Collegiate Athletic Association is violating the law by failing to treat student basketball and football players as employees, opening a potential path to let them unionize.
Prosecutors for the federal agency reached the same conclusion about the Pac-12 Conference and the University of Southern California, that each was legally an employer of the athletes, NLRB press secretary Kayla Blado said Thursday. Absent a settlement, the NLRB’s Los Angeles regional director will issue a complaint against the organizations on behalf of the labor board’s general counsel, she wrote in an email.