Four umpires who worked the 2011 U.S. Open Tennis Championship weren’t happy with the tournament’s outcome. It’s nothing personal against this year’s champions Samantha Stosur and Novak Djokovic, but rather the U.S. Tennis Association (USTA), who the umps say should have paid them overtime.
The umpires say the Open regularly requires working more than 40 hours in a week. But because, they charge, the USTA has wrongly classified them as independent contractors, they are considered exempt from the extra pay, according to Fox Rothschild.
In Meyer et al. v. United States Tennis Association – a Fair Labor Standards (FLSA) action filed at the federal court for the Southern District of New York – the umpires say that they cannot be considered independent contractors because they do not make their own schedules; their pay rate is not negotiable; they are at no risk of losing money; and they are not allowed to work for another employer while working the tournament.
The courts usually focus on five factors when determining the status of an employee, all related to how “economically dependent” that employee is on the employer’s business. Courts will look at: (1) the degree of control exerted by the alleged employer over the worker; (2) the worker’s opportunity for profit or loss; (3) the worker’s investment in the business; (4) the permanence of the working relationship; and (5) the degree of skill required to perform the work, according to the FLSA Employee Exemption Handbook.
A USTA spokesperson says the umpires “have chosen to exploit the U.S. Open and take advantage of the goodwill” it generates, Thomson Reuters reported. The USTA’s main defense will revolve around the short period of time the umpires work.
If the umpires get the goodwill of state and federal courts in this case and get class-action status, hundreds of umpires who have worked the Open over the last six years could be entitled to unpaid wages, overtime, monetary damages and attorney’s fees.