Quote:
Originally Posted by Nevadaref
If they are truly independent contractors, then no one is obligated to assign them to anything. They don't even have to receive one assignment the whole season.
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At the time, our assignment commissioner (a paid employee of our local board) was bound by our rules to assign each "good standing" (dues paid, fees paid, certain important meetings attended) official a "range of games" (number of assignments) dependent on one's ranking, which, in turn, was based on one's rating, which was based on peer ratings, written exam, meetings attended, and availability. The rankings were also used to determine varsity, or subvarsity, status.
The disgruntled female officials were not really concerned about their number of assignments, but rather, on their status as varsity, or subvarsity, officials. A few believed that their status should be based on years of experience, as well as their ability. Years of experience was not part of the status equation. Never was, in terms of guaranteed varsity assignments. We never had rule that said "ten years in means guaranteed varsity assignments" (we did have a rule that stipulated a minimum number of years to get some varsity games, or a full varsity schedule, that rule no longer exists). This very small group thought that they were "spinning their wheels" working subvarsity games and never getting a varsity game. They believed that it was their gender holding them back, not their lack of ability. But this was happening to low ability guys as well as low ability gals. Due to the lack of a well publicized "master list", they couldn't know whether there was gender discrimination, or not.
Since then, we have changed our system to a system based on observations by trained observers, with no posted "range of games" (number of assignments), but on the discretion of the assignment commissioner based on the observations. Trained observers also decide varsity, or subvarsity, status. We also have a "master list" on our website. We can now see who gets varsity games, and who gets subvarsity games (but not the number of assignments).
The independent contractor tag has been loosely tossed around our local board for several decades. I'm not sure that it's used in a truly legal sense.