Jonathan Israel Quoted on Student-Athlete Employment Status

Partner Jonathan (Jon) Israel was quoted in a Business Insurance article entitled, “Student-athlete employment status memo poses comp, insurance questions,” which covered the likelihood of student-athletes gaining employment status amid the new memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board, and the potential insurance implications and questions should they be considered employees.

In the interview, Israel cautioned that with the new memo, “what is likely to happen is universities who don’t recognize employment status could be charged with unfair labor practices.”

When asked what employment status could mean for universities’ insurance needs, Israel highlighted, “Every state’s going to have to grapple with it. It depends on who’s calling them an employee and when, and there may be a federal law that does first, and if it does, what does that mean for workers comp insurance? Will it require a certain coverage or is it just an option? And cost is yet to be seen but would be increasing significantly given the risk of injury from the ‘work’ that they do.”