Sports Science(Quality work, no plagarism, A+)

1. Discussion assignment

Sports & Employment Law View Full Description

This week we read in our textbook about the various underpinnings involved in employment laws in the world of sports.  Various federal and state acts are controlling on issues in the wide world of sports, just as they are in any other career field.  Please read the following article:    

http://sportslaw.uslegal.com/employment-law-and-sports/

Next, choose one employment act listed in the above article and conduct research to find a sports law case that involved that act.  Discuss the case, newspaper article or law review journal article. Explain what happened in the sports law dispute, why the employment act was relevant and the result of the dispute.  

2. Respond to discussion

In this week’s forum I will select an employment act and discuss the details of a case in which that act is relevant. The Occupational Safety and Health Act was enacted in 1970 in order to provide standards for the health and safety of employees ("Employment Law and Sports – Sports Law", 2019) . The Secretary of Labor is directly responsible for writing workplace regulations outlining what is considered to be sufficient workplace conditions. OSHA can be activated by an individual grievance or through official OSHA inspections.

In 2011, OSHA cited Dick’s Sporting Goods, at their Queensberry, Ney York location for six different alleged violations. It was determined that “two repeat violations with $33,000 in fines were cited for blocked fire extinguishers and lack of fire extinguisher training while four serious violations with $24,300 in fines were cited for the confined space hazards and a missing fire extinguisher”  ("US Labor Department's OSHA cites Dick's Sporting Goods for safety hazards at Queensbury, NY, location | Occupational Safety and Health Administration", 2011 ). In total, Dick’s was facing 57,300 dollars in fines. OSHA regulations state that businesses who have been cited have 15 business days to get in compliance or dispute the citation. In this case, Dick’s successfully paid their fine and took the necessary steps to comply with OSHA’s workplace health and safety standards.

OSHA is a very important agency that helps protect the interests of employees in the workplace.

3. Respond to discussion

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act  requires that an employer treat pregnancy in the same approach that other disabilities are treated. Women who become temporarily disabled by pregnancy or childbirth must be provided with the same benefits as other disabled workers.  This includes things like sick leave, insurance, and similar benefits.  When it comes to sports,  Sporting officials owe a duty of care to participants to make the activity as safe as possible. It is important that there is a balance between pregnant women being able to participate in sport without harming themselves & their unborn child and the duty of care owed by the sporting club or organization. 

 A pregnancy discrimination case example would be Australia’s netball league.   In June 2001 The National Netball League, banned pregnant women from playing Netball, the main reason being to prevent future legal action against the netball body if a woman and a fetus suffer an injury in a netball game. At the time the captain of the Adelaide Ravens team, Trudy Gardener was 15 weeks pregnant. She was banned from playing in the upcoming National League after she disclosed her pregnancy. She filed a complaint against the ban through the Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission on the basis of pregnancy discrimination. She also sought an injunction on the ban which would allow her to play in the upcoming National League finals, preventing her from losing match payments and sponsorship opportunities. She was granted an injunction which allowed her to continue to play in the final series.  In 2003 (2 years later) he ban was found to be discriminatory under the Sex Discrimination Act. Netball Australia accepted that they had acted in a discriminatory manner but argued that due to their status, acting as a voluntary body under the Sex Discrimination Act, their actions were exempt. 

I think the right decision was made and it should be solely up to medical consultants to decide if she should play, and not based on the sole fact that she’s PREGNANT.