State House committee approves Western Hockey League bill

The state Legislature took another step this week toward approving a bill that clarifies Western Hockey League players are amateur athletes and not paid employees who should be paid minimum wage and fall under state child labor laws.

The House Labor Committee voted 5-2 on Monday in Olympia to move Engrossed Senate Bill 5893 to the full House, although other committees are expected to look at the bill as well before it goes to a full vote. The Senate approved the bill 47-0 on March 3. The bill was referred on Wednesday to the Rules Committee, which includes members of the House and Senate.

“There is still work to be done on this and it can be amended as the bill moves forward,” said state Rep. Mia Gregerson, D-SeaTac, and Labor Committee vice chair, in a phone interview. “I think we need new legislation that will protect facilities that give access to (college) scholarships for the hockey players. And the ShoWare Center is very important to the community of Kent.”

Owners of the Kent-based Seattle Thunderbirds, who play at the ShoWare Center, and the three other WHL teams in the state are heavily lobbying the Legislature to approve the bill because of an ongoing investigation by the state Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) into whether child labor laws have been broken by the teams that feature players ages 16-20.

Hockey owners fear if they must abide by child labor laws the younger players would no longer be able to compete with such limited work hours and their entire business model for the league would fall apart.

L&I started an investigation of the WHL teams in the winter of 2013 after someone filed a complaint about possible violations of child labor laws because the players put in so many hours of practice and games with basically no pay. L&I officials have said they do not have a timeline on when the investigation might be finished.

Randy Gumbley, of Toronto, Ontario, and a former owner of an Ontario Junior Hockey League team, continues to oppose the bill. The WHL is part of the Canadian Hockey League and Gumbley has helped with unsuccessful efforts to try to unionize CHL players in Canada. Many of the WHL players are from Canada.

“The House is aware that there is a pending civil class action and a L&I government investigation that is not yet complete,” Gumbley wrote in a letter to the House Labor Committee. “The Washington state constitution prohibits any special legislation once a civil or criminal actions is commenced. It also prohibits the government from granting special powers or privileges to a corporation. Given the language used in the bill 5893 and naming the WHL directly in this bill, it will never hold up upon a challenge.”

Rep. Matt Manweller, R-Ellensburg, picked up on Gumbley’s argument during a debate at Monday’s meeting. Manweller reluctantly voted for the bill.

“I’m going to ask for a yes vote on this bill but I believe it is flawed and we will regret passing it in this manner,” Manweller said. “In its original form, it referenced the more generic amateur sports and we have specifically called out the WHL. My fear is the same person who filed the charge which led to this legislation will now have standing to invalidate this law as a private law and we will have engaged in a symbolic action of passing this law and provided a poison pill within this law to see its immediate nullification in the first Superior Court judge that gets it.”

Rep. Timm Ormsby, D-Spokane, and Rep. Jim Moeller, D-Vancouver, voted against the bill.

“For all the reasons we have said, some of us are a little bit on the bubble on where to go with this,” Ormsby said. “Just in the interest to provide motivation to get this figured out – as far as the language goes so it’s very narrow and specific to this – I think my interest in this is coming out with a mixed vote so we are on the bubble on this so we need to indicate as a committee that this needs further work.”

The Legislature is scheduled to be in session until April 26, so a vote by the full House could come anytime before that date.

The Labor Committee heard testimony about the bill on March 17, including comments from Tim Higgins, general manager at the ShoWare Center, who spoke in favor of the bill because the Thunderbirds are the anchor tenant of the city-owned facility.

“The Seattle Thunderbirds are a significant part of our operating budget,” Higgins said. “They make up 50 percent of our ticketed events at 40 games and 50 percent of our revenue comes from the Thunderbirds.”