Jump to content

PIAA & Insurance


LRZ
Umpire-Empire locks topics which have not been active in the last year. The thread you are viewing hasn't been active in 1704 days so you will not be able to post. We do recommend you starting a new topic to find out what's new in the world of umpiring.

Recommended Posts

This is a FYI alert for Pennsylvania/PIAA umpires. If you are a PIAA umpire, you may have received an email from PIAA that it has discontinued insurance (without, of course, a compensatory reduction in dues) . With the fall sports season just several weeks, we've just begun hearing that schools (some schools, at least) will not hire officials without insurance, and my soccer chapter is scrambling to make sense of this and how to deal with it. PIAA has provided a link to NFHS insurance (through a group called National Federation of Officials Association), but that seems like PIAA and NFHS collusion, to keep our dollars "in-house." Anyway, baseball chapters have more time to figure this out, but I suggest starting now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've used NASO for several years now. You get the Referee magazine with it and you're covered for all your sports at all levels.

As for the refund from the state, that's a good fight to have. If a portion of your dues directly pays for it, you should be able to get it refunded. It would be interesting to see if PIAA pays a per-official premium or a base premium no matter the number of officials covered.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

yawetag, does NASO insurance include a medical component, or is it just against lawsuits and general liability? It's not clear to me from the NASO website.

Refund? Ha! PIAA said that it dropped our insurance to save money instead of increasing our dues! 

I explained in another forum that I pay $45 per sport (basketball and soccer) to PIAA, plus another $30 to my two chapters (when you pass the PIAA test in a sport, you have to affiliate with a local chapter). We pay our own costs for background checks, which are good for five years and then must be renewed. For my yearly outlay of $150, I get a rule book in each sport, plus the basketball case book (the soccer book incorporates both in one). Some chapters also provide the basketball referee manual, and most chapters offer an end-of-season "banquet" to its members. So, from my chapter dues ($60), I get a rule book, a case book and a mediocre buffet dinner; from PIAA ($90), I get...nothing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, lawump said:

Is the action of the PIAA as set forth in the OP related to this?  (I'm being serious and not sarcastic.)

https://www.referee.com/biggest-officiating-stories-2018/5/

(I have no idea as to the current status of that lawsuit.)

For what its worth, I found a story stating that they settled the lawsuit over the Fourth-of-July weekend, and that the officials are independent contractors.  I still don't know, however, if the action in the OP is in any way tangentially related to the lawsuit.   

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The federal Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit held, 3-0, that we are not employees. It is my understanding the the case was decided in PIAA's favor, not settled.

Yes, the stories are related: PIAA cited the expense of defending the litigation as one reason for dropping the insurance coverage, instead of an increase in dues.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, LRZ said:

The federal Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit held, 3-0, that we are not employees. It is my understanding the the case was decided in PIAA's favor, not settled.

Yes, the stories are related: PIAA cited the expense of defending the litigation as one reason for dropping the insurance coverage, instead of an increase in dues.

According to Law360.com, it was settled as the appeals were pending.  They actually had a number of quotes from attorneys and parties on both sides as to why they settled.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe the claim, under the Fair Labor Standards Act, for minimum wage was settled, and the appeal from the NLRB, about employee/independent contractor, was decided? As I understand it, the former was based on the latter--that is, as employees (according to the NLRB ruling), we were entitled to minimum wage. This was probably parallel to the appeal from the NLRB, PIAA v. NLRB. Related issues, discrete litigation.

My guess is that, after the attorneys get their percentage, the $260K will be divided among the affected officials state-wide who opted in.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, LRZ said:

Maybe the claim, under the Fair Labor Standards Act, for minimum wage was settled, and the appeal from the NLRB, about employee/independent contractor, was decided? As I understand it, the former was based on the latter--that is, as employees (according to the NLRB ruling), we were entitled to minimum wage. This was probably parallel to the appeal from the NLRB, PIAA v. NLRB. Related issues, discrete litigation.

My guess is that, after the attorneys get their percentage, the $260K will be divided among the affected officials state-wide who opted in.

I admit I read it late last evening, and I certainly didn't analyze what I was reading.  But, it appears you are correct:

"The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association has agreed to pay a collective of high school sports referees over $260,000 to end a federal lawsuit that alleged the organization misclassified refs as independent contractors and paid them less than minimum wage.

"U.S. District Judge Marilyn Horan signed off on the settlement over the Fourth of July holiday and dismissed the suit on Friday. The referees had alleged that the PIAA violated the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act in its treatment of high school football, basketball, baseball and lacrosse referees.

"The settlement concluded what would likely be a long and expensive case to take to trial, the agreement said. It noted that in a tangentially related case, the D.C. Circuit had ruled that PIAA lacrosse refs who were attempting to form a union were indeed independent contractors, which the settlement appeared to concede.


Read more at: https://www.law360.com/articles/1175788/pa-high-school-refs-settle-wage-suit-with-sports-group?copied=1

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...