Scholarship Student-Athletes are “Employees”
The National Labor Relations Board’s Northwestern University Ruling
On March 26, 2014, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Director for Region 13, serving parts of Illinois and Indiana, found that grant-in-aid scholarship football players are employees under the National Labor Relations Act. The ruling was in response to a petition filed with the NLRB by a group of Northwestern University football players. The Petitioner contends that football players (“players”) receiving grant-in-aid scholarships (“scholarship”) from the employer are “employees” within the meaning of the [National Labor Relations] Act, and therefore are entitled to choose whether or not to be represented for the purposes of collective-bargaining. The employer, on the…
