Ten of Oregon State University’s 13 current women’s basketball players have asked Oregon’s labor board to recognize them as public employees, a petition that could test whether college athletes at a public university can organize as a bargaining unit. The players filed the petition in late July through the United College Athletes Association, and hearings began in Corvallis in September. Additional hearings are scheduled for October 1, with a decision possible as early as December, according to USA Today and Oregon Public Broadcasting.
The legal question before Oregon’s board
The Oregon Employment Relations Board must address two related issues: whether the players qualify as employees of Oregon State and whether they constitute an appropriate bargaining unit. Oregon State disputes the petition, arguing that playing on a college basketball team is not service performed for hire. The university says academics remain the primary purpose of the college experience and that athletic participation is part of that experience, rather than work performed for wages, according to OPB.
The players and the UCAA take the opposite view. They argue that the time, demands and services associated with participation amount to compensated work for the university. The UCAA says the team collectively receives about $543,000 annually for competing and performing other athlete-related services, and argues that the players pay taxes on that compensation, according to USA Today. The athletes currently receive scholarships, stipends and revenue-sharing payments connected to name, image and likeness; OSU maintains those forms of financial support are not salary or wages paid in return for playing basketball.
Why the case is before a state board
Oregon State is a public university, so the dispute is being handled under Oregon’s public-sector labor system rather than by the National Labor Relations Board, which generally covers private-sector employers. That jurisdictional difference limits direct comparisons with private colleges and leaves the Oregon board to apply the state’s public-employee framework to an athletic relationship that has not previously been resolved in this proceeding, according to OPB.
The university has also raised practical questions about what employee status could mean for workers’ compensation, sick leave and international students, and argues that the implications could extend beyond this team to Oregon’s public colleges and universities. Those are issues raised in the dispute, not findings by the board. An administrative law judge is expected to send a recommendation to the three-member board, which can accept it or reach a different conclusion; any ruling could be challenged and potentially reach the Oregon Court of Appeals, according to OPB.
The closest Oregon comparison involves campus jobs
Oregon already has a documented example of student status coexisting with public-sector union representation, but it involves conventional campus employment. The Oregon Employment Relations Board records show that a union became the exclusive representative of approximately 4,000 University of Oregon student-worker employees on November 7, 2023. The unit included food-service and clerical workers and resident assistants—not varsity athletes seeking recognition as a team bargaining unit, according to the board’s records at the Oregon Employment Relations Board.
That precedent establishes that being a student does not, by itself, end every employee-status question in Oregon. It does not decide whether athletic participation is compensated work or whether a sports team is an appropriate bargaining unit. Those questions remain specific to the Oregon State case.
Dartmouth offers a different comparison
The Oregon board’s eventual decision will determine only the questions presented in this case. It could clarify how Oregon law treats scholarships, stipends, revenue-sharing and athletic services when athletes seek public-employee status, but the record and any appeals will determine how broadly the ruling can be applied. For now, the pending hearings—not the comparisons with other student-worker or athlete cases—will decide whether Oregon State’s players can move from seeking recognition to bargaining over issues such as health care, leave and wellness programs.
