Are WHL players employees?

The current lawyer led movement to have major junior hockey players paid minimum wage smacks of an extension of the awkward, ill conceived, poorly executed and ultimately failed attempt to unionize the young men who entertain major junior hockey fans from the fall to spring each year.

However, the minimum wage lawsuit has legs. A judge has been hearing arguments in a Calgary court on the issue.

The lawyer representing 119 current and former WHL players has presented evidence he said proved WHL teams could afford the estimated $250-thousand annual bump to each team’s bottom line a minimum wage would bring.

It includes one team’s six-figure salary paid to a team official’s spouse, hundreds of thousands of dollars in unexplained management fees on another team’s balance sheet, while another claims to have doled out over 200-thousand in “promotional meals”.

None of this creative accounting comes from the small market teams like the Raiders who are the epitome of frugality in major junior hockey and are hard pressed to post even a  modest annual profit. In fact, expect the Raiders to be on the wrong side of the profit and loss statement for 2016-17.

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What the plaintiffs conveniently forget is WHL teams pay for equipment, sticks, billet lodgings and meals. Billet parents often go above and beyond monetarily while essentially making players members of their families. Just how far would minimum wage earnings go if players were on the hook for their equipment and living expenses? Then there is the scholarship program whereby teams pay for a year of post secondary education costs for each year of WHL service.

The court process is in the preliminary stage. Plaintiffs first have to gain class action lawsuit certification before the arguments over dollars and cents can take place, which to many makes no sense.

However if the suit is successful, teams like the Prince Albert Raiders would be in peril without trimming current player expenses and Raider players are treated as well as any in the WHL. It also stands to reason the large market teams where profits are expected would also adjust their expenses.

The implications of a successful suit could trickle down into Junior-A, the hockey home of Canadian kids hoping to land U.S. college scholarships. Payment of minimum wages to those players would make them pros and therefore ineligible for scholarships in the eyes of the big money administrators of American college sports south of the 49th parallel. Mind you they already ignore thousands of dollars in under the table money that goes to the top Junior-A players.

All of this makes you wonder, who would truly benefit from making major junior hockey players minimum wage employees? Oh yeah, I forgot…the lawyers!

dwilson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: RaidersVoice