Are minor league training games entertainment or work?

Major League Baseball and minor league players continued arguments for their dueling motions for summary judgment Wednesday in a case about whether the players are employees.

The two focuses for the day were whether minor league players fall under the "seasonal and amusement" exemption of the Fair Labor Standards Act and whether the testimony of plaintiffs' damages experts should be excluded.

Former MLB player and minor league pitcher Garrett R. Broshuis of Korein Tillery LLC represents the plaintiffs, a class of players in Arizona, California and Florida. Elise M. Bloom of Proskauer Rose LLP represents MLB.

The plaintiffs accuse MLB of preying on minor leaguers, paying them salaries of $3,000 to $7,500 for the entire year despite them frequently working more than 50 hours a week. Furthermore, the players receive no overtime compensation and no wages at all during training and instructional time. MLB's position is that this practice is not inappropriate because minor leaguers are not employed throughout the year and fall under exemptions for federal wage and hour laws. Senne et al. v. Office of the Commissioner of Baseball et al., 3:14-cv-00608, (N.D. Cal., filed Feb. 07, 2014).

Broshuis argued Wednesday that minor leaguers should be considered employees and protected under federal law.

Bloom said that the plaintiffs are exempt from the federal labor law because they are only employees during the baseball season and are entertainers.

Broshuis countered by saying that players are employed throughout the year, even during spring training, and as such do not fall under the seven month or average receipts criteria required by the federal law to qualify as seasonal.

On amusement, Broshuis said the primary purpose of spring training is to train, not entertain fans.

Bloom responded by saying the training is open to the public and fans can watch their favorite team practice as entertainment.

Broshuis said only friends and family attend to watch spring training but Bloom contends that does not matter, fans have the ability to watch.

Bloom then petitioned Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero to exclude the report by the plaintiffs' damages expert, Brian Kriegler. Because MLB did not have time records to show hours worked by minor leaguers, Kriegler drafted a report based on surveys and evidence to establish a figure of how many hours each class member worked.

Bloom said Kriegler's report is not representative of the class members, claiming there is too much variance in the reported hours by various players for the report to be admissible.

Broshuis argued that when minor leaguers are working all players have a "structured nature of work," players have schedules for practice and each team is allotted a certain amount of time for pregame activities.

Spero took the arguments under submission.