Competitor Group Sued For Not Paying "Volunteers"

Thanks.

Everyone should take a look at the Calera Capital website.

Take a look at their 'Team' tab - all white guys; none of whom sound like they're exactly poor and struggling.

I worked at a ton of races for our local club and all the money we made over expenses went back to the running and greater community (hospitals, charities, etc.).

Calera is just the opposite. Cynical exploitation, period.

If the end result of the plaintiff being successful means that helpers must be paid, then it ends road races.

If it means that helpers must be paid if the organizers are for profit, then it ends for profit companies from running these events.

In any case, you are not going have the result of these helpers being paid.

The NCAA CEO gets a free private jet from the NCAA and the NCAA is a 'nonprofit'.

Mary Wittenberg makes a huge salary for the 'nonprofit' NYRR.

The NFL is a 'nonprofit'.

Max Siegel makes a huge salary for the 'nonprofit' USATF.

The lawsuit against MLB for the All Star Game Experience volunteers was dismissed because there is an exception to the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act for employers who operate temporary recreation events. But the lawsuit did spook the NFL and some others to start paying volunteers.

Whether Competitor Group made misrepresentations to induce people into volunteering is a different issue than a claim under the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act. State law may also be different and not recognize the exemption.

This will be tossed out super fast, mostly for the reasons mentioned above. Not to mention there is a form of compensation for most if not all volunteers in the form of a tech t-shirt and in certain cases food/beverage.

Also, if you were under the impression that 100% of the proceeds of RNR go to a charity - you have no one but yourself to blame. Should CGI give more than they do to the local communities and charity partners...sure, but what they give, is what they give.

If you want to be paid to "volunteer", then don't volunteer. If they cannot find enough folks who will, they will start to pay. If you do not want to run their races, don't run their races, if they can not field enough runners to cover the variable costs of the event, the event will cease to exist.

To me this woman is about as respectable as the woman who sued McDonalds when she burnt herself with coffee that she did not know was hot...the only difference - that woman won her case.

muddy girl wrote:

This is interesting.

Hood to Coast is also a for-profit event, which purportedly gives money to charities. It requires teams to provide 3 volunteers in order to participate if it has any team member living within a more than 100 mile radius of Portland, OR.

Teams can by-pass the entry lottery if each runner agrees to raise a certain amount of money (I think one year it was about $825 per runner). HTC then "donates" that money to a charity and touts its donation, but in fact it was the team members who contributed far in excess of the entry fee to participate who raised the money. No money came out of the pockets of HTC.

HTC makes tons of money every year - and it almost completely relies on "volunteer" labor to make it work.

One of the worst aspects of this is that some of these volunteers are assigned to the Hood To Coast apparel store at the finish line. This serves no purpose other than putting more money in the race director's pocket with free labor. And if your team's volunteer(s) are assigned to this position, their pretty much stuck with that assignment. With how poorly the race came off this summer, more volunteers were needed at major exchanges and not the Hood To Coast "Boutique"

Motion to dismiss wrote:

Also, if you were under the impression that 100% of the proceeds of RNR go to a charity - you have no one but yourself to blame.

Uh, no. The business practices of Competitor Group will be illuminated through this suit. The evidence will show that CGI has grown their RnR franchise through an assortment of deceptive acts and by systematically skirting state labor laws. Ask anyone at the American Cancer Society if it was worth dancing with these filthy devils.

E. Bonix wrote:

Motion to dismiss wrote:

Also, if you were under the impression that 100% of the proceeds of RNR go to a charity - you have no one but yourself to blame.

Uh, no. The business practices of Competitor Group will be illuminated through this suit. The evidence will show that CGI has grown their RnR franchise through an assortment of deceptive acts and by systematically skirting state labor laws. Ask anyone at the American Cancer Society if it was worth dancing with these filthy devils.

For those who missed it, Competitor is suing the American Cancer Society because Competitor says ACS didn't give Competitor sufficient notice before ending its relationship with Competitor. ACS disagrees. ACS claims that it its deal with Competitor actually ended up costing ACS money instead of benefiting ACS. News story and lawsuit below:

If you believe what ACS says in the story, it might be that Competitor makes deals with charities that let it use the charities' name without a net financial benefit to the charities. Which I suppose would be good for Competitor's bottom line. IDK who's right, but it will be interesting to see what facts come out in the lawsuit.

The labor law stuff people posted doesn't look especially clear-cut, but you have to wonder about a business model that relies on workers donating their services for the business to generate a profit. Entry fees are so high already that if you raised them enough to pay all of the workers at the race I expect it would drastically reduce the number of entries and probably kill off the for-profit races.

Star wrote:

If the end result of the plaintiff being successful means that helpers must be paid, then it ends road races.

Most road races I run are put on by not for profit companies, schools, charities etc.

Here's another leech:

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Motion to dismiss wrote:

There is a form of compensation for most if not all volunteers in the form of a tech t-shirt and in certain cases food/beverage.

And if a McDonalds paid someone $3/hr, they couldn't be sued because they're giving the person "a form of compensation"?

Randy Oldman wrote:

Most road races I run are put on by not for profit companies, schools, charities etc.

And you can tell by the quality (or lack thereof).

Hayduke wrote:I would use your argument against you. if an intern doesn't know that they will be making copies and taking coffee orders all summer than that is on them. And how do you know that those volunteers are not interested in learning about race management?

My response was directed at the specific case that is being contested here. A race volunteer, who signed up to be a bike escort, has filed a lawsuit. Clearly, signing up for that position, one would have little expectation of learning much about race management. Would that person need to know anything about how to organize start and finish areas, for example, no. What they would need to know is where the race expects them to ride and in what manner, and also are there any other similar duties that they need to know how to do. If this person had volunteered for a job more in line with general race management, different case.

On the other side, the intern situation, if one signs up to be an intern with the understanding that the main focus of the learning experience is going to be making copies and taking coffee orders, I would totally agree with you that they get what they agreed to. If on the other hand that intern signed up with the understanding that they would be learning about a specific job or industry and it turned into copies/coffee and little else, that doesn't seem to be enough to me.

Ah yes. Competitor Group. We're talking about the same compassionate people who once served water to marathon participants from open hydrants.

http://www.reviewjournal.com/sports/las-vegas-marathon/las-vegas-marathon-runners-say-they-were-sickened

Frankly, I do not like the precedent that is set by this lawsuit at all. Having read the link to this and seeing the proceedings put forth, I find this to be an affront to the concept of volunteering. In addition, having been on three sides, as a runner, race organizer, and a volunteer at different times, I have a problem with this for the following reasons:

1> Volunteering is a choice. When you volunteer your time, it's no longer your time. The concept is the same as donating your money to an organization, losing it at a casino, or purchasing something--it is no longer your money.

2> Volunteering is benevolent, and all races, not just the Competitor Group, LLC, make it clear that the volunteers are the reason the races can still happen.

3> Volunteers sign a form--they know exactly what they are getting into.

4> To seek out wages for something that is supposed to be done to help racing and help races then becomes a "for-profit" mission on the part of those seeking remuneration, and therefore, becomes a worse offense than a company seeking to make profits. Why? Competitor Group will use some of those profits to make sure that races are better and more attractive. The individual will simply use it for personal reasons and not give back in any way.

5> The whole idea of backlogging and retroactively seeking remuneration is a dirty way to try to eek out money when it is clear that the agreement was fully understood prior to the event and the lawsuit.

6> You can find any shyster lawyer to take a class action lawsuit because some lawyers are just as greedy as the people who want to create a "class" just to eek out a small smattering of dollars.

7> It damages the future of racing.

Personally , I hate that this is even being discussed and I hate that people want Competitor Group to lose. The individual has no precedent other than she and her alleged "class" must need money.

I do not feel sorry that she "donated" her time and "got" to ride a bike with a selected racer. To me, that sounds more like a privilege. What is with America now?

--Mad Mike

Go for the Gold wrote:

7> It damages the future of racing.

--Mad Mike

^This

Randy Oldman wrote:

Star wrote:

If the end result of the plaintiff being successful means that helpers must be paid, then it ends road races.

Most road races I run are put on by not for profit companies, schools, charities etc.

You didn't quote my whole post.

You don't pay your helpers, right?

The lawsuit is for them to get paid.

Your races don't help them get paid.

If they win the lawsuit, for profit companies stop holding events.

If that win means that any event must pay them, then non profit organizations will stop holding races.

If non profits are allowed to not pay helpers, then they won't get paid, obviously.

There is no scenario where they win the lawsuit and actually get paid in future events.

[quote]Go for the Gold wrote:

7> It damages the future of Competitor Group's business model.

^ FIXED.

Mad Mike -

I agree with most of your post, however I think the gist of the lawsuit is that she was 'deceived' (maybe too strong of a word, but nevertheless) into believing she was volunteering for a 'non-profit' cause.

One can argue it was on her to do the proper research to see what she was volunteering for, etc.

Let the courts decide.

Personally, not sure where I stand on whole Competitor issue. One one hand it fills a need for a certain segment of the running/jogging population and if they keep registering obviously the demand is there. On the other hand, they want non-compete clauses from other area races (from what I read on LRC), it lets other races raise their prices and swallows smaller races.