Are Officials Independent Contractors Or Are They Restricted To Work Leagues ?

[Love2ref4Ever]

Are Basketball Officials Idependent Contractors or Are They Restricted To Work Leagues By A Governing Body?
Here in the state of New York Officials can work any leagues they choose without being suspended from there boards.Though in some states,you can't work any where unless your games have been assigned by the board. As officials how do you honestly feel about this? Though there has been a situation here in my area where a official was told not to work a league because of the organization he belongs to had this league and now they do not assign officials to this league.

[BigDave]

In Arizona, we are independent contractors. We are free to work when and where we choose.

[BktBallRef]

Originally posted by Love2ref4Ever
Though there has been a situation here in my area where a official was told not to work a league because of the organization he belongs to had this league and now they do not assign officials to this league.

Say what?

[Mark Padgett]

First of all, IANAL. However, I am somewhat familiar with both Federal and my state's (Oregon) law regarding determination of independent contractor vs. employee status. I don't think that's exactly what you meant in your post. I think you wanted to know if an entity (for instance an association) has the right and/or authority to prevent you from taking certain assignments. Frankly, I would think that would depend on your agreement with that association. If you have a conflict, see an attorney.

As to the legal definition of independent contractor, that is another matter. There are Federal guidelines the IRS uses and each state has it's own guidelines and statutes. Your local IRS office can give you a pamphlet listing the Federal guidelines.

Here in Oregon, there currently is a bill in the legislature, HB 3986, that would add sports officials who work on an assignment by assignment basis to the list of professions that are automatically deemed independent contractors for tax and workers' comp purposes. The bill was introduced by State Representative Al King of Springfield who is a soccer official. Last session, Representative King introduced and got passed our Referee Assault Protection statute. Although the new bill would not affect me personally (I am a corporation), I support it.

[AK ref SE]

What I think you were trying to say...... Okay i won't put words in your mouth...... Where I used to officiate, I would occasionally be asked to work games other than thru my association. I would call my assigner and ask if we as an association had a conflict with particular group(School, YMCA,Leagues, etc.) Reason for this some groups would try to get officials on their own normally at a cheaper rate. This has a potential for the association as a whole to have contracts dropped or undermined. In some areas this could be a problem. Now where I am at now, I could probably go at on my own and have a full schedule. But, I enjoy the people I work with.

AK ref SE

[Love2ref4Ever]

So, as Officials should we be able to work where we choose or should we be limited to work only the leagues that the organizations that we are members provide officials for?

[Dan_ref]

Originally posted by Love2ref4Ever
So, as Officials should we be able to work where we choose or should we be limited to work only the leagues that the organizations that we are members provide officials for?

You should be able to work where you choose as long as
you meet all requirements and restrictions. For instance,
an assignor might require that you belong to a particular
associaton, but some associations have a residence
requirement or a restriction on dual membership. So before
you get offered games in say, the Bronx, the assignor might
require you to be a member of the Bronx board. If the Bronx
board requires you to reside in the Bronx then you're stuck,
since you live in Manhattan. Even if the Bronx board let's
you join without residing there you might be stuck if the
Manhattan board does not allow dual membership. (I'm using
Manhattan & the Bronx as examples, I don't know their
particular rules. Lots of assignors do use board membership
as certification and lots of boards have their own rules
to join.)

[Brian Watson]

I am glad it is not that complicated in OH.

I would tell an association to piss off if they told me I could not work in area, even if the AD was going to hire me.

[Dan_ref]

Originally posted by Brian Watson
I am glad it is not that complicated in OH.

I would tell an association to piss off if they told me I could not work in area, even if the AD was going to hire me.

I'm not saying that this is typical, but it could happen
this way.

[AK ref SE]

Where I officiated a couple years ago. The Schools and some of the more elite Rec leagues contracted with the Association. If you did not belong to the associate, you would not get a high school game. I enjoyed the association, they were very good to me!
Where I am now, I could tell the association where to go and I would have a full schedule including high school games. The surrounding area is so short of officials I could travel ever weekend to officiate. All areas are different.

AK ref SE

[rockyroad]

You SHOULD be free to work for anyone you want to...now having said that, there are always possible consequences to decisions. So I would look carefully at the impact of my decision on any other boards or associations I might belong to...for example: If I take supplementary type games from this group over here, will it tick off my "normal" assignor and cause me to lose games over there? May not be right, but it happens...I work for two assignors who used to be friends but no longer are...for a while it was "If you work for him, you won't work for me" and vice-versa...luckily we convinced both of them that wasn't fair to us...