More Minor Leaguers Link Up with Long-Standing Wage-and-Hour Litigation Against MLB [UPDATE]
Last Updated on October 21, 2022
Senne et al. v. Office of the Commissioner of Baseball et al. (Dott, Johnson Intervention)
Filed: February 23, 2021 ◆§ 3:14-cv-00608
Two more minor leaguers look to add themselves as representatives in long-running wage and hour litigation against Major League Baseball.
California
Case Updates
October 12, 2022 – Minor Leaguers Wage-and-Hour Settlement Preliminarily Approved
The court has granted preliminary approval to the $185 million settlement between Major League Baseball and minor leaguers who alleged they were paid “starvation” wages.
The deal was preliminarily approved on August 26, 2022 by United States Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero, who called the $185 million settlement, after eight years of litigation, a “respectable amount given the number of novel issues and complexities of this case, as well as potential issues for appeal” that remained. The judge also highlighted that the deal provides important prospective relief as it calls for MLB to rescind the portion of the employment contract at issue and to instruct each major league club to comply with wage-and-hour laws.
Notice of the deal is expected to be sent out to minor league “class members” on or around October 28, 2022. An official settlement website has been established—https://www.baseballplayerwagecase.com/— and will be updated with more information as the deal approaches a final approval hearing with the court.
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July 22, 2022 – MLB, Minor Leaguers Settle Long-Running Wage Dispute for $185 Million
Major League Baseball and a handful of minor leaguers have agreed to a $185 million settlement to end more than eight-year-old litigation alleging players in the sport’s lower tiers were paid “starvation” wages across spring training and the regular season.
In their motion for preliminary approval, the plaintiffs stated that the proposed deal provides “tremendous benefits” and that none of the settlement money would revert back to MLB should it go unclaimed. Moreover, MLB agreed, as part of the settlement, to rescind any contractual prohibitions against major league clubs paying minor league players wages outside of the championship season.
In addition, the league will issue to each pro team a memo that advises the club to compensate minor leaguers in compliance with Arizona and Florida wage-and-hour laws during spring training, extended spring training, instructional leagues and the championship season in those states.
“This is an historic outcome for current and future minor league baseball players; it eliminates the main barrier towards ensuring that they are paid for the work that they do,” the plaintiffs told the court.
The amount of settlement money available to each minor leaguer will be calculated using an “objective formula that accounts for the amount of alleged work performed and the applicable state minimum wage hourly rates,” the motion says.
The proposed settlement was reached just ahead of a trial slated to begin in June. If approved, the deal will cover:
“All persons who: while signed to a Minor League Uniform Player Contract, participated in the California League for at least seven days on or after February 7, 2010 through the date of preliminary approval, participated in spring training, instructional leagues, or extended spring training in Florida on or after February 7, 2009 through the date of preliminary approval, or participated in spring training, instructional leagues, or extended spring training in Arizona on or after February 7, 2011 through the date of preliminary approval. Provided, however, that participation in the activities set forth above must have occurred prior to that person’s signing a Major League Uniform Player Contract.”
Those covered by the deal should expect to receive notice of their rights and options via regular mail and email. Payments will be sent to players automatically should the settlement be approved.
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May 16, 2022 – MLB, Minor Leaguers Settle ‘Starvation’ Wages Class Action
With a June 1 trial date approaching, Major League Baseball has reached an agreement with minor league players to end nearly decade-old litigation over alleged wage and hour violations.
Legal publication Law360 shared on May 10 a letter in which counsel for MLB and the minor league plaintiffs informed the court that a settlement had been reached in principal and asked Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero for a deadline of July 11, 2022 by which to file a motion for preliminary approval of the deal.
The settlement, for which details are not yet available, tentatively ends litigation that began in 2014, when minor league players sued MLB over alleged violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and state labor statutes. The players alleged they were paid as little as $1,100 per month during a five-month season and next to nothing for postseason and off-season work.
Law360 relays that Judge Spero anticipated that the trial would have been lengthy and encouraged both sides to consider a bench trial, in which there is no jury and the judge decides on the matter.
ClassAction.org will update this page should details of the settlement be made available.
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Intervenor complaints have been filed by three current and former minor league baseball players who look to join as representatives long-running litigation alleging Major League Baseball has failed to pay minor leaguers lawful wages.
Former minor leaguer Aaron Dott and current minor leaguers Cody Sedlock and Kyle Johnson allege in the short complaints that they’re among scores of big league hopefuls who put in substantial spring training, fall league and off-season work with the minor league affiliates of MLB teams without receiving legally appropriate wages.
The intervenor complaints piggyback on to Senne et al. v. Office of the Commissioner of Baseball et al., a sweeping case filed in February 2014 that alleges minor league players receive as little as $1,100 per month during the five-month regular season and no wages at all for spring training and fall instruction leagues, which, for all intents and purposes, are mandatory to attend.
According to Sedlock’s complaint, he has been in the Baltimore Orioles minor league system since 2016 and is a covered employee within the meaning of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and state wage and hour laws. Sedlock was selected by the Orioles in the 2016 Rule 4 draft and has worked since that summer for the team’s affiliates in Aberdeen and Frederick, Maryland and at the American League East team’s spring training site in Florida, per the complaint.
Sedlock says he routinely works more than 50 hours per week during the minor league season and has not earned a salary despite often working seven days per week during spring training in Florida, or for off-season work performed for the defendants.
“To summarize, Mr. Sedlock, like all Class Members working under the direction of MLB and its Franchises, works for less than minimum wage, receives no overtime pay despite routinely working overtime hours, and often works for no pay,” the player’s intervention complaint reads.
The second complaint relays Dott was with the Tampa Bay Rays’ organization from 2009 to 2011 and the New York Yankees from 2011 to 2015, while Johnson has been with the New York Mets since 2013 and previously worked in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization. Both allege they routinely work, or worked, more than 50 hours per week during the season and received no salary for work performed during spring training or the off-season.
All three intervenors say they received wages only during the minor league season. The two complaints relay that the intervenor plaintiffs adopt every allegation made in the main class action against MLB and the Office of the Commissioner.
In August 2019, a magistrate judge certified in Senne v. MLB a collective of minor leaguers under the FLSA and California Labor Law, and the U.S. Supreme Court in October 2020 denied MLB’s appeal of the certification of the class of approximately 6,000 non-unionized minor leaguers. A tentative trial date is set for June 2022.
The extensive legal warring is part of a much broader timeline of labor strife between players and ownership in the history of professional baseball in the United States. Most recently, MLB axed roughly a quarter of all affiliated minor league teams nationwide, erasing roughly 1,000 player jobs in the process, as part of a “forced restructuring” of the minor league system.
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