Private colleges' employment policies pressured by Northwestern NLRB ruling
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Private universities worried that their scholarship student athletes might follow Northwestern University football players' lead should re-evaluate their policies, experts say.
“There are some things that other universities can change regarding their relationships with their student-athletes to make their athletes look less like employees in the way they did in Northwestern's case,” said Terence McCourt, a Boston-based shareholder and chairman of Greenberg Traurig L.L.P.'s labor and employment practice.
For example, a university could relax its control of athletes' activities, including restrictions on external communications, part-time jobs and required minimum training hours, experts said.
“I'd think about whether I need to start amending some of my policies and employee handbooks to protect the school in the event that the claims begin to begin to roll in,” said Jeff Pasek, a New York-based member concentrating on labor and employment law at Cozen O'Connor L.P. “Any school that has scholarship athletes needs to think long and hard about how this ruling could affect them.”
While National Labor Relations Act rules prohibit Northwestern from changing policies to potentially influence football players' upcoming union vote, experts said other universities should use the regional National Labor Relations Board ruling to reduce the likelihood of similar rulings regarding their athletes.
“Pandora's box is open, and we're not going to be able to turn back from here,” said Ann Longmore, executive vice president and EPLI practice leader at Willis North America Inc. in New York. “Colleges are going to have to look at all of these provisions with new eyes.”
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