MLB Continues to Fight Wage and Hour Class Action Lawsuit

Major League Baseball is seeking to block certification of eight proposed subclasses of plaintiffs in a wage and hour class action lawsuit brought by a group of minor league players.

The proposed subclasses would encompass players bringing claims based on several different states’ wage and hour laws, in addition to allegations brought under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.

The subclasses would subdivide the overall plaintiff class granted conditional certification in October 2015 by U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero. Plaintiffs say that class now includes over 2,200 minor league players who have affirmatively opted in, out of a possible class size of 14,800 players.

The players’ wage and hour class action lawsuit began in February 2014. Three minor league players sued, alleging that the way MLB pays its minor league players results in their being paid less than the minimum wage.

Plaintiffs allege that minor league players are expected to work 50 hours or more each week. These players are paid $1,100 per month at the lowest levels and up to $2,150 at the highest, the plaintiffs say. The resulting wage can be lower than the legal minimum, they argue.

Plaintiffs also argue that players are expected to do work that is uncompensated. They argue that MLB abuses the control it has over these young players’ careers, exploiting their strong desire to enter the major leagues. They say that MLB’s policies particularly harm players recruited from Latin America, who are often very young and without much education, and who come to the league from impoverished families.

The standard contract under which minor league players work places rights to that player with the particular team that drafts them, according to plaintiffs. For a seven-year period, that team may assign its control over the player to another team. Players cannot initiate their own transfer to another team, the plaintiffs say.

The power imbalance they describe is what has prevented minor league players from forming a union as major league players have been able to do, say the plaintiffs.

Certifying Sublclasses in a Wage and Hour Class Action Lawsuit

The proposed subclasses would divide the plaintiffs among eight states in which they played and would determine which state’s labor law would apply to their non-federal claims.

In opposing class certification, MLB argues that each player’s claim will require individualized attention that precludes the players from joining into subclasses. The league argues that the employment status of each player is an open legal question that will need to be determined on a case-by-case basis.

The league also argued against dividing the plaintiffs into subclasses by state according to where each player worked. Such a subdivision would group together plaintiffs who had “virtually nothing in common,” the MLB argued. Some players would have played regularly in a given state, while others may have played there only a few times.

Plaintiffs respond that they are all employed under a standard contract that imposes the same terms and conditions upon them all. They argue that they all perform substantially the same work from spring training through the end of the season in autumn.

The MLB Wage and Hour Class Action Lawsuit is Case No. 3:14-CV-00608 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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