Today, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) denied the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), PAC-12 Conference, and University of Southern California’s (USC) Motion to Dismiss the Complaint filed by the National College Players Association (NCPA). Based on the scheduling order, the parties will move forward with a hearing on November 7th, addressing pretrial motions and subpoenas.
Last year, the NCPA filed the charges with the National Labor Relations Board—later filing a Complaint that USC, the PAC-12 Conference, and the NCAA, as joint employers, unlawfully violated the National Labor Relations Act by misclassifying college football and basketball players as non-employees.
In response, the NCAA, conference, and university denied the NCPA’s allegations, responding that the NLRB lacks jurisdiction over the NCAA and should decline jurisdiction over the responding parties, among other defenses.
After all parties agreed on a scheduling order on October 13th, the responding parties filed a Motion to Dismiss the NCPA’s Complaint. Without a response, the Office of the Executive Secretary of the NLRB summarily denied the Motion to Dismiss, citing section 102.24(b) of the Board’s Rules, which states, “[a]ll motions for summary judgment or dismissal must be filed with the Board no later than 28 days prior to the scheduled hearing.” Per the scheduling order, the parties scheduled a hearing to address pretrial motions on November 7th. Therefore, the responding parties filed the motion less than 28 days prior to the hearing.
Thus, the parties will proceed to the hearing without addressing the Motion to Dismiss, and the path to joint employee status just got a bit easier for the NCPA.
Landis Barber is an attorney at Safran Law Offices in Raleigh, North Carolina. You can
connect with him via LinkedIn or via his blog offthecourtdocket.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Landisbarber.
