US Soccer Reaches Deal With Women’s National Team In Fight For Equal Working Conditions, But Not Equal Pay



[ad_1]

The two sides reached a deal resolving the unequal working conditions that the USWNT presented in a larger March 2019 lawsuit, which claims the women were paid less than the men’s team and also been subjected to unequal conditions.

This latest claim, US Soccer said on Tuesday, has been resolved as both parties have filed for a settlement. In it, the federation undertakes to implement policies specifically related to “hotel accommodation, staffing, locations and travel”.

In a statement, Molly Levinson, spokesperson for the USWNT players, stressed that the deal did not signal the end of the legal battle, saying the team still planned to appeal the court’s decision in last May rejecting the team’s equal pay demands.

The deal, Levinson said, “ignores the central fact in this case that female players were paid at lower rates than men doing the same work.”

“We remain as committed as ever to our work to achieve the equal pay we legally deserve,” she said. “We are focused on the future and making sure we leave the game in a better place for the next generation of women who will play for this team and this country.”

Cindy Parlow Cone, president of US Soccer and former USWNT player, called Tuesday’s deal a “positive step forward,” and urged the team to accept the standing offer to discuss options of contract.

“As a former USWNT player, I can promise you that I am committed to equality between the USWNT and USMNT,” she said in a statement, referring to the team. national male. “My goal is, and always has been, to achieve resolution on all equal pay issues and to inspire a new era of collaboration, partnership and trust between the USWNT and the Federation.”

American football president: demands for equal pay would lead to the “ bankruptcy ” of the organization

In a conference call after the announcement, Cone told reporters the federation contacted the team and offered them the same contract as the men for US Soccer-controlled games. However, said Cone, the team are asking the federation to put together the prize for the FIFA World Cup, a “vast majority of the $ 66 million they are asking for in back wages.”

Recognizing that money, Cone said, would likely bankrupt US Soccer.

“It would be devastating for our budget and for our programming,” she said. “But given Covid, not to be too dramatic, but that would probably bankrupt the federation.”

In May, USWNT star Megan Rapinoe, appearing on ABC’s “Good Morning America” ​​after the court rejected the team’s equal pay claims, said US Soccer had never offered. the male contract to women.

USWNT’s equal pay claims previously rejected by judge

The USWNT initially filed a complaint against the American Football Federation in March 2019, with 28 team members on the list of complainants.

Lawsuit Alleges American Football Federation’s payment practices federal discrimination by paying women less than men “for substantially equal work and denying them at least equal playing, training and travel conditions equal promotion of their games equal support and development for their games and other equal terms of employment with MNT. “

In May, Judge R. Gary Klausner wrote in his ruling that USWNT members had failed to prove pay discrimination under the Equal Pay Act because they played more games and won more games. money than the men’s team. The women’s team also rejected a collective agreement (CBA) where they would have the same pay structure as the men’s team in favor of a different CBA, Klausner wrote.
Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan 'shocked' by rejecting equal pay demands, say they will continue to fight

“This approach – just comparing what each team would have done as part of the other team’s ABC – is untenable in this case because it ignores the reality that the MNT and WNT have negotiated different agreements that reflect different preferences, and that the WNT has explicitly rejected the terms they now seek to impose on themselves retroactively, ”Klausner wrote.

Rapinoe defended the USWNT, arguing that “the men’s contract was never offered to us and certainly not the same amount.”

“To say that we negotiated our contract and that’s what we agreed to, I think so many women can understand what it feels like to get into a negotiation knowing that equal pay is not on the table. Knowing somewhere close to your male counterparts isn’t even on the table, ”she says.

[ad_2]

Source link