College Athlete Right to Organize Act

To establish collective bargaining rights for college athletes, and for other purposes. 1. Short title This Act may be cited as the College Athlete Right to Organize Act 2. Findings Congress finds the following: (1) The National Labor Relations Act ( 29 U.S.C. 151 et seq. (2) Labor organizations often originate to remedy unfair and exploitative labor practices by employers through assisting employees in securing more equitable terms and conditions of their employment, including fair compensation and safe working conditions, which individual employees would be unlikely to negotiate successfully for on their own. (3) Labor organizations serve unique and essential purposes for professional athletes competing in sports leagues, where it is desirable to establish uniform rules and standards across multiple employers. These rules and standards bear significant consequences to the athletes in terms of compensation, health and safety, and the ability or lack thereof for athletes to choose their employer, among other issues related to the athletes’ well-being. (4) The formation of labor organizations representing athletes in professional sports leagues in the United States has helped end exploitative practices by team owners and management, particularly through establishing collective-bargaining agreements that have secured athletes a fair share of the revenues their talent and labor produces, as well as more equitable terms of their employment and protections for their short- and long-term health. (5) College athletes face exploitative and unfair labor practices by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (referred to in this section as the NCAA (6) The NCAA and its member institutions have denied college athletes a fair wage for their labor by colluding to cap compensation; they maintain strict and exacting control over the terms and conditions of college athletes’ labor; and they exercise the ability to terminate an athlete’s eligibility to compete if the athlete violates these terms and conditions. (7) College athletes exhibit the markers of employment as established under the common law definition of the term employee (8) To establish more equitable terms and conditions for college athletes’ labor, college athletes need representation of their own choosing to negotiate collective-bargaining agreements with their respective colleges and the athletic conferences that help set rules and standards across an entire league. (9) To organize effectively, college athletes must be able to form collective bargaining units across institutions of higher education that compete against each other, including within athletic conferences; and, accordingly, to establish effective collective bargaining rights for college athletes under this Act, the National Labor Relations Act must be amended to cover both private and public institutions of higher education to the extent that college athletes attending such institutions fall within the definition of employee (10) The Constitution of the United States vests Congress with the power to regulate commerce between the States, and intercollegiate sports, which are maintained by athletic associations that host competitions between colleges across States, involves interstate commerce that generates annual revenue of more than $15,000,000,000. (11) Intercollegiate sports’ significant engagement in interstate commerce justifies application of the National Labor Relations Act ( 29 U.S.C. 151 et seq. 3. Collective bargaining rights of college athletes (a) Definitions Section 2 of the National Labor Relations Act ( 29 U.S.C. 152 (1) in paragraph (2), by adding at the end the following: Notwithstanding the previous sentence, the term employer (2) in paragraph (3), by adding at the end the following: “Any individual who participates in an intercollegiate sport for an institution of higher education, and is a student enrolled in the institution of higher education, shall be considered an employee of the institution of higher education if— (A) the individual receives any form of direct compensation, including grant-in-aid, from the institution of higher education; and (B) any terms or conditions of such compensation require participation in an intercollegiate sport. ; and (3) by adding at the end the following: (15) The term grant-in-aid (16) The term institution of higher education 20 U.S.C. 1002 (17) The term intercollegiate athletic conference (A) means any conference, or other group or organization, of institutions of higher education that— (i) exercises authority over intercollegiate sports at such institutions of higher education; and (ii) is engaged in commerce or an industry or activity affecting commerce; and (B) notwithstanding subparagraph (A), does not include the National Collegiate Athletic Association. (18) The term college athlete employee . (b) Multiemployer bargaining unit Section 9(b) of the National Labor Relations Act ( 29 U.S.C. 159(b) : Provided (c) Jurisdiction related to intercollegiate sports Section 14(c)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act ( 29 U.S.C. 164(c)(1) Provided Provided Provided further (d) Prohibition on waiver An individual may not enter into any agreement (including a grant-in-aid agreement, as defined in section 3(15) of the National Labor Relations Act ( 29 U.S.C. 152(15) 4. Treatment of direct compensation for tax purposes and eligibility for Federal financial assistance Nothing in this Act, or an amendment made by this Act, shall— (1) cause any type of direct compensation described in section 2(3) of the National Labor Relations Act ( 29 U.S.C. 152(3) (2) cause any individual to be treated as an employee, or cause any amounts received by an individual to be treated as wages, for purposes of any provision in the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 relating to employment taxes or the withholding of taxes by an employer if such individual or amounts would not otherwise be so treated; (3) affect the treatment of qualified scholarships under section 117 (4) otherwise affect the treatment of any direct compensation described in such section 2(3) in determining income, including gross income or adjusted gross income, for purposes of— (A) the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, including any reporting requirements under such Code; or (B) determining eligibility for any form of Federal financial assistance, including assistance under subpart 1 of part A of title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 ( 20 U.S.C. 1070a et seq. 5. Severability If any provision of this Act, an amendment made by this Act, or the application of such provision or amendment to any person or circumstance is held to be unconstitutional, the remainder of this Act and the amendments made by this Act, and the application of the provision or amendment to any other person or circumstance, shall not be affected.

Summary: College Athlete Right to Organize Act This bill establishes collective bargaining rights for college athletes. Specifically, the bill amends the National Labor Relations Act to (1) define college athlete employee as an employee of an institution of higher education if the individual receives direct compensation from the institution and such compensation requires participation in intercollegiate sports, and (2) include public institutions as employers within the context of intercollegiate sports. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) must consider the colleges within an athletic conference as part of a bargaining unit with which college athletes can negotiate. The NLRB shall have jurisdiction over all institutions of higher education within the context of intercollegiate athletics regarding collective bargaining and representation matters and labor disputes. The bill prohibits any agreements, such as scholarship agreements, that waive the right of athletes to collectively bargain.