What do March Madness and workers compensation have in common?
Executive Summary
A March 26, 2014 NLRB ruling involving the issue of collective bargaining could have implications for state workers compensation act coverage of employee-athletes. In addition, comp expert Richard Zatorski notes that if "athlete-students" become subject to the workers comp laws of the various states, the exposures to be covered will not be of the plain-vanilla kind.At present, not very much. But if a recent ruling by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) holds up, comp underwriters and claims adjustors may become more concerned about the effect of ACL injuries on their loss ratios than about which #11 seed to pick for the Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge.
The ruling of note, issued by Peter Sung Ohr of the NLRB on March 26, found that football players receiving grant-in-aid scholarships from Northwestern University qualify as employees.
