{"id":65925,"date":"2020-05-19T08:40:59","date_gmt":"2020-05-19T12:40:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=65925"},"modified":"2020-05-19T12:52:35","modified_gmt":"2020-05-19T16:52:35","slug":"brock-expert-says-chl-settlement-leaves-room-for-further-action-on-behalf-of-hockey-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2020\/05\/brock-expert-says-chl-settlement-leaves-room-for-further-action-on-behalf-of-hockey-players\/","title":{"rendered":"Brock expert says CHL settlement leaves room for further action on behalf of hockey players"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With the announcement of a <a href=\"https:\/\/chl.ca\/article\/settlement-reached-in-major-junior-hockey-class-actions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">settlement<\/a> in a six-year legal battle between the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) and its players, a Brock expert says there remains a need to protect the well-being of major junior players across the country by ensuring they are paid minimum wage.<\/p>\n<p>The settlement will require the CHL to pay $30 million to former players by October 2020, which Brock University Assistant Professor of Labour Studies Simon Black says is a partial victory.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe settlement is better than nothing,\u201d says Black. \u201cDue to the CHL&#8217;s effective lobbying campaign, provincial governments have exempted players from coverage under employment standards legislation, the basic minimum protections and rights afforded workers under the law.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Black, who has written <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thestar.com\/opinion\/contributors\/thebigdebate\/2018\/11\/27\/should-ohl-players-be-paid-yes.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">opinion pieces<\/a> and scholarly articles on the case for years, says the next step is to protect the rights of current junior hockey players.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe CHL\u2019s business model is premised on the exploitation of young athletes\u2019 labour,\u201d he says. \u00a0\u201cIn their quest to avoid paying their players the minimum wage, the league has successfully fought off unionization and lobbied provincial and state governments to exempt major junior hockey players from basic labour protections and rights. And they have done so while hiding behind the myth that CHL players are \u2018amateur student-athletes,\u2019 not employees of their club.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Black says further action on behalf of the leagues\u2019 players must be taken by the labour movement as a whole.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe labour movement, including players\u2019 unions like the NHLPA, must step in to protect these young athletes by pressing provincial governments to reverse these exemptions,\u201d he says. \u201cWhile this settlement does bring some justice to former players, current players will continue to be the only workers at the arena \u2014 from the coaches on down to the hot dog sellers \u2014 that are not paid at least the minimum wage.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the announcement of a settlement in a six-year legal battle between the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) and its players, a Brock expert says there remains a need to protect the well-being of major junior players across the country by ensuring they are paid minimum wage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":65926,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,1,4,38],"tags":[110,522,3856],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65925"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65925"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65930,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65925\/revisions\/65930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}