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SB-1248 Minor league baseball players: contract restrictions. (2021-2022)

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Date Published: 03/15/2022 09:00 PM
SB1248:v98#DOCUMENT

Amended  IN  Senate  March 15, 2022

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2021–2022 REGULAR SESSION

Senate Bill
No. 1248

Introduced by Senator Becker

February 17, 2022

An act to amend Section 1152 of the Labor Code, relating to employment. add Section 436 to the Labor Code, relating to private employment.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


SB 1248, as amended, Becker. Alatorre-Zenovich-Dunlap-Berman Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975. Minor league baseball players: contract restrictions.
Existing law creates the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, which is headed by the Labor Commissioner, and vests it with various powers for the purpose of enforcing orders of the Industrial Welfare Commission and labor laws. Existing law prescribes requirements and establishes prohibitions that are applicable to contracts and applications for employment. Existing law makes certain violations of employment laws crimes.
This bill would enact the Minor League Baseball Players’ Bill of Rights. The bill would define a minor league baseball player as a person who is employed to play baseball for a minor league team that is affiliated with a major league baseball team and who plays, resides, or is employed in the state. The bill would prohibit an employment contract with a minor league baseball player to play baseball that is first entered into on and after January 1, 2023, from having a term in excess of 4 years. The bill would require, for these employment contracts, that they may not prohibit the player from using the player’s own name, image, or likeness as the player sees fit, or from receiving compensation for that use, and any such provision would be void and unenforceable. Among other things, the bill also would prohibit a player’s exercise of the right to use the player’s own name, image, or likeness from affecting the player’s league eligibility and would prohibit retaliation in any form against a player as a consequence of the exercise of this right.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Existing law, the Alatorre-Zenovich-Dunlap-Berman Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, requires that employees, as defined, have the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection and shall also have the right to refrain from any or all of those activities except to the extent that right may be affected by an agreement requiring membership in a labor organization as a condition of continued employment, as specified.

This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to that provision.

Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: NOYES   Local Program: NOYES  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) Since 1922, Major League Baseball (MLB) has greatly benefited from a Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 exemption granted by the United States Supreme Court in Federal Baseball Club of Baltimore v. National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs (1922) 259 U.S. 200 and maintained over the years in numerous other cases. This exemption has enabled MLB owners to set salaries for minor league baseball players without the same protections that are generally provided to workers throughout the country.
(b) As a result of this exemption, MLB owners have collectively agreed to pay most minor league players a salary of less than $15,000 for the six-month standard season, and under a standard contract, which has a seven-year reserve clause, minor league baseball players are not compensated for spring training.
(c) Player and labor abuses have been common throughout the history of Major League Baseball and are well documented, and until MLB players unionized in the mid-20th century, the players were at the mercy of ownership. Minor league baseball players lack a union.
(d) In 2018, the United States Congress passed the “Save America’s Pastime Act” to exempt minor league baseball players from the federal minimum wage and overtime laws set by the Fair Labor Standards Act, a matter which was then, and continues to be, litigated.
(e) There are notable differences between the profits of MLB owners and the profits of the players. In 2019, MLB’s revenue neared $11 billion, a 9,000-percent increase since 1975. Meanwhile, the salary for minor league baseball players, which is beneath federal poverty levels, has only increased 75 percent in that same period.
(f) The disparity between the racial and ethnic composition of ownership and the baseball workforce is also noteworthy. While almost all MLB owners are White, approximately one-half of all minor league baseball players are people of color or immigrants.
(g) When surveyed, minor league baseball players have raised questions regarding their pay and working conditions, including those regarding periods of free work, housing difficulties, cost and availability of meals, issues with transportation to work and for games, difficulties connected with being reassigned, and the costs of training in the off season, among others.
(h) In order to improve working conditions for minor league players by the MLB, it is incumbent upon the Legislature to enact a Minor League Baseball Players’ Bill of Rights to address these issues.

SEC. 2.

 Section 436 is added to the Labor Code, to read:

436.
 (a) This section shall be known, and may be cited, as the Minor League Baseball Players’ Bill of Rights.
(b) For purposes of this section, “minor league baseball player” means a person who is employed to play baseball for a minor league team that is affiliated with a major league baseball team and who plays, resides, or is employed in the state.
(c) An employment contract with a minor league baseball player to play baseball that is first entered into on and after January 1, 2023, shall not have a term in excess of four years.
(d) For an employment contract with a minor league baseball player to play baseball that is first entered into on and after January 1, 2023, all of the following shall apply:
(1) The contract shall not prohibit the minor league baseball player from using the player’s own name, image, or likeness as the player sees fit or from receiving compensation for that use. A provision that interferes with the player’s right to use the player’s own name, image, or likeness shall be void and unenforceable.
(2) If the major league baseball employer asserts a conflict between a minor league baseball player’s endorsement contract and the team contract, it shall inform the player and player’s designated legal representative, if any, and identify and describe the provisions that it asserts are in conflict.
(e) If a minor league baseball player exercises the right to use the player’s own name, image, or likeness, this exercise shall not affect the player’s league eligibility, and the player shall not be subject to retaliation in any form as a consequence of the exercise of this right. A player who exercises this right by entering an endorsement contract shall inform the appropriate official identified employer of this fact without undue delay.

SEC. 3.

 No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution.
SECTION 1.Section 1152 of the Labor Code is amended to read:
1152.

Employees shall have the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection and shall also have the right to refrain from any or all of those activities except to the extent that right may be affected by an agreement requiring membership in a labor organization as a condition of continued employment as authorized in subdivision (c) of Section 1153.