Macie Velediaz announced in a post on Facebook that she would no longer be sponsored by Dynamic Discs after failing to come to terms on a new contract. Allegedly, Dynamic Disc significantly decreased their offer after finding out that Macie is pregnant and would only be playing a limited 2024 Disc Golf Pro Tour Season. We discussed the legal factors that define pregnancy discrimination and how they apply to Macie’s Situation.
Macie’s Post: https://www.facebook.com/macie.walker.98/posts/pfbid02kSywyqa4MJXCSduB3u6MVqAmoHAvS7sn5A9YVWZSqYD8TjgiyU75JfxLczyCTvyNl
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0:00 Macie Leaving Dynamic Discs
1:16 Types of Status
1:59 Pregnancy Discrimination Act
2:38 Determining Factors
5:49 Macie’s Situation
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Hello everyone it’s Chris Clark with dis off. law Macy vadz recently announced that she is leaving Dynamic Discs after 3 years and there’s been a bit of controversy around her departure according to Macy’s Facebook post she had decided to stick with Dynamic disc as her sponsor for 2024 and when they
Went to discuss terms Dynamic disc presented Macy with a contract offer that was lower than she expected shortly after that happened Macy informed Dynamic Discs that she is pregnant after discussions with her doctors she had decided to play 10 tournaments in the 2024 season upon receiving this news
Dynamic Discs presented Macy with an updated offer that was lower than its previous offer Macy ultimately decided not to resign with Dynamic Discs and seek sponsorship opportunities elsewhere we decided we wanted to talk about this because we got several questions asking us whether it is legal for Dynamic Discs
To do this does Dynamic Discs making a lower offer to Macy based on her pregnancy amount to unlawful discrimination one important factor to consider in analyzing this question is Macy’s status with Dynamic Discs and here’s what I mean by status is Macy considered a dynamic disc empy employee
Or is she an independent contractor I think most people including Dynamic disc and Macy and myself would say that she is most likely a contractor and not an employee to be honest I probably don’t have enough detailed information to give a firm opinion one way or the other but
Here are some reasons why I think this is an interesting and somewhat nuanced issue employees in the United States are protected from discrimination based on the pregnancy Discrimination Act which provides that discrimination on the basis of pregnancy childbirth or related medical conditions is a type of unlawful sex discrimination to win a pregnancy
Discrimination case you must show that you were treated differently than other employees who are similarly situated the Ence in treatment was based on your pregnancy so if Macy were considered to be a dynamic dis employee this could be an issue I can hear most of you now
Saying but she’s not an employee she’s a contractor and again that is probably correct but the determination is not as simple as you may think there are several factors that determine whether someone is considered an employee or an independent contractor it may surprise you to learn that the company wanting
The individual to be a contractor and the individual wanting to be a contractor and having a written contract between the two that states that the individual is an independent contractor and not an employee has almost no bearing on the legal determination here the IRS has published a lot of helpful
Guidance on this topic one of which lists 20 different factors that are to be considered in correctly classifying whether a worker is an employee or a contractor I’m not going to go through all 20 here but I did want to point out a few of them that I think are relevant
In Macy’s situation one factor is whether the individual is permitted to do work for multiple companies it’s not unusual for contractors to provide the same services to multiple different companies which is typically not the case for an employee disolf player contracts are typically exclusive meaning players cannot sign with
Multiple disk manufacturers at the same time on the other hand players routinely seek other types of sponsors and some players even provide disc golf related services such as providing commentary for companies other than their main disk manufacturer sponsor a second factor is whether the individual is permitted to
Delegate all or a portion of their work to someone else companies that insist on a particular person performing the work assert a certain degree of control that would suggest an employment relationship to contrast that with contractors contractors are typically free to assign work to another person or other people
In the case of professional disc offers obviously the individual who is under contract is required to perform all of the services themselves another factor that we look at is who provides the tools and equipment that the worker uses workers who perform most of their work using company provided equipment are
More likely to be considered employees work that is largely done using independently owned or obtained supplies support say conclusion that that is an independent contractor in dis off obviously a player typically is only permitted to throw discs from their sponsor in other words only able to do their work using company provided
Equipment now some other factors include the extent to which the company directs when and where and how the work is done whether there is training provided by the company and the flexibility of the workers’s schedule I’m not suggesting that Macy should be considered a dynamic dis employee but I think it’s not as
Clearcut a question as as some might think balancing the various factors that we’ve discussed I still think it would slightly lean in favor of her legally being considered an independent contractor but I think it’s an interesting question especially since it’s likely one that players in the fpo
Division will face in the future from time to time curious to hear your ideas what Provisions could be used to address pregnancy in player contracts is this simply a case of a player playing few tournaments and therefore being entitled to lower compensation or is it more complicated than that you know should
Provisions be put in contracts to accommodate absences for pregnancy and other issues that might temporarily interrupt an Foo player’s career curious to hear your thoughts please like comment subscribe and as always thanks for Watching
24 Comments
Just to help you out its a quick search for non lawyers so I guess you're not a lawyer.
Among the sports in which the participating athletes have been considered to be employees are football, baseball, basketball, and hockey. Among those in which they have been considered not to be employees are golf, boxing, wrestling, skating, and midget auto racing.
In the first group of cases above, there was generally an owner, manager, trainer, coach, or captain who had the right to direct and control the details of the player's activity. In contrast, in the second group of cases, the sport was generally one that involved athletic competition between individuals rather than teams."
In the case of individual type sports such as boxing, wrestling, golfing, skating, skiing, tennis, midget auto racing, or track and field, the promoting organization normally provides no training or coaching, and has no right to influence the outcome of any competition. As these athletes under contract have developed a style and reputation which makes them a drawing card, no right to control their style or manner of competing is contained in their contracts. On the contrary, the promoter merely selects the type of event in which the athlete will participate and schedules appearances.
My suggestion unless you want me to make a channel called the real disc gf lawyer, you should learn how to critically think and do research.
First men are allowed to play in FPO now you get penalized for being pregnant? The disc golf community has set women’s sports back 60 years 🥳
It’s hard to listen to this cadence
I can almost see why you wanted to make this video, delving into some of the intricacies of player and sponsor relations. However this situation seems really cut and dry and I see no discrimination or dishonesty from either party. Just a company who wasn't willing to pay a certain amount to a player who wouldn't play a full season. I'm almost positive that, even with her disappointment at the amount she was offered, Macie fully understood why the amount she was offered was lower.
For a wide variety of issues in contract negotiations (and other issues), I'm waiting for the time when pro disc golf athletes have some sort of representation. Whether that's by a sports management group, a union, or something else, I'm not sure. But it seems to me there would be some advantages to such representation, and that the benefits would, or at least could, outweigh the drawbacks.
😅😅 I hope Natalie Ryan doesn't get pregnant. 😅😅
Legal or not, it is immoral to deny or reduce payments for a person undergoing a medical process, whether that be pregnancy, extended medical leave due to surgery, or time off due to an injury. Dynamic Discs just showed the Disc Golf world that if you get pregnant, they think you're worth less money.
This is all just another swirl in the flush of DD going down the crapper.
Companies have to take all costs in mind when offering a contract, including risks. If they have a pregnancy provision, or if they are forced to have one, that risk will lower the amount of money they can offer FPO players.
She had an offer. She was delusional about her worth.
My question is, since the new contract for entire season was lower for the 20+ events, was the 10 event contract about half the original offer? Is the issue she is pregnant or only playing 10 events. If it was 1/4 the offer it is about the pregnancy and horrible. If it was about the same per event then it's at least plausible. Obviously they missed a huge opportunity to pay her for a normal season.
The change in the contract was based on the fact that she went down to only 10 tournaments… This is fake drama click bait
Can you smoke crack and be professional in said sport?
She was not terminated, her contract was up, therefore there is zero legal standing for Macie.
This is circumstantial at best
A few factors surface in my mind. First of all, whether and employee or a contractor, the period of her agreement was fulfilled, and she was negotiating new contract and new terms, and I would assume would have some sort of provision on the number of events that would be played. Next season there are 11 majors, and 23 elite series events, And of course many many others. And of course the regular A tier events (or lower) you wouldn't expect a pro to do (with the exception of a couple, such as Blue ridge and Texas State which are both A tier) but this still leaves a minimum of 34 events that at the very least are reasonable options, and although most pros they don't play in all of the elite series events most at least play in some, and many play in a fair number of them. But most pros play in all of the majors. For comparison, she played in 24 events last year. Sponsors are paying for exposure of their brand. The more people see pros using a particular brand of product, the more likely they are to try said product which means revenue for that brand. So they are likely assuming a similar level of exposure, and I would be surprised if that was not part of the contract given the fact that she is not a content creator such as Simon or Bodanza, the latter of which just received his sponsorship based almost exclusively on his social media presence. And if she had something similar where even if she was not competing she was still exposing people to the brand, then that would be something different, but in her case if she is not playing, she is not performing the service that she is being paid for, so if you are negotiating a contract with the expectation of a certain level of work/service being done And then the person being contracted comes back and says "well actually I'm only going to do about a third of that", you are a very unlikely to be willing to pay them the same amount. And, going back to the point at the beginning, she was not terminated from an existing contract. This was a new contract for new employment, and the offer was based on the amount of services that would be provided, and nothing to do with the person. They didn't present a lower offer because she is pregnant, they present her a lower offer because she was going to be providing less than half of the expected services in return.
In terms of delegating work, DG pros may often delegate things like video production to a team around them. On the other hand, the sponsor can provide them with the media assets as well.
This whole thing is so complicated. How I see it is the company wants her to be present and play at a certain number of events. Her value is based mostly on how she plays and performs. If she can't play and can't perform, she has less value as a sponsored player. I would think if she was offered a value for 20+ tournaments and the value for 10 tournaments was less than 40% of the regular value than they are discriminating against her for her pregnancy. Her per tournament value doesn't go down until she is she is away for a while. Although they may be able to argue that her value was higher at the events she will be missing like the 2 majors she'll probably miss.
The real question is, how much do you think this will impact negatively on Dynamic Discs sales? Will future sponsors also be afraid to go there based on how they handled this situation?
I personally feel they need Macie more than she needs them. They got Ricky Wysocki and Zach Melton for MPO(Ty Love also but played 1 event 2023??) and FPO is tricky since they have, Sarah Gilpin (933 rated, 13 FPO Events in 2023), Raven Klein (933 rated, 23 events played in 2023), Kona Star Montgomery(922 rated, 14 events played and on Supreme Team which is highest team under World Champion Team, Natalie Holloköi(922 rated, 7 FPO events, 1 FPO 40+ from Switzerland). Carli Charron(911 rated, 9 FPO Events) and Emma Arp(905 rated, 32 FPO Events in 2023).
Macie on the other hand is rated 966 and has 23 FPO events in 2023 played. She is going to play a bit less than half of that this year. Other facts of the 23 events, 3 are B Tier, 3 are A Tier, 3 are Majors, 13 are Elite Series and she played Throw Pink Women's which was a XA tier so a higher A tier? She cashed in ALL but one event in 2023. She finished 2nd @ Music City Open an Elite Series Event. She won an A tier and got second at another. She took home $22,840 in earnings from tournaments in 2023. She earned more than Zach Melton($1865) and Ty Love($25) who are both on the highest non World Champion Team. Kona who is the third member of that team earned $2,195. Paige Shue who left DD earned $10,499 this year and is rated 950.
After all that I think they are just stringy when it comes to cash. Also paying Ricky $1 mil a year doesn't help if you don't have the McBeth disc sales to far exceed it.
This is a clear cut issue. It's an offer for a personal service contract.
This is a non-issue. Her contract was up and they were negotiating a new one. Even before they knew she was pregnant they offered her less than she thought she deserved. But then she notified them she was pregnant and would be playing a shortened season. DD then reduced their offer because she wasn’t going to be representing them much this year. That’s perfectly fair! You shouldn’t need a lawyer to sort this out for you.
I thought they were dropping her for not play tournaments. She is cutting way back on what she is playing. I feel like people do not understand business. They think with their emotions and emotions are almost never right. Use you head.
I think that DD shot themselves in the foot with this one. It could have been a great possibility to be in the eye of public with new DD baby has been born contxt overy social media etc. I can see that they misused this great oppurtunity to make new hardcore fans in childloving communities.
DD blew a chance to benefit from Macie's pregnancy. They could have publicized the event, hosted parties at the various tournaments, created baby disc golf merch and really played it up. So, now, instead of having fun with it, it turned into an unpleasant scene. This reinforces the fact that corporations, large or small, are only interested in profits and not the welfare of their employees/contractors. Somebody at DD really messed up big time.
If player plays less than 50% of the season, that player should be paid less than when playing 100% of the season.
If you work part-time, you get paid less than full-time employee. It is as simple as that.
What would people think if Aaron Gossage would say that he plays only half of the tour and sponsor said that they can't offer as much as they would offer if he played a full season? Most likely these people badmouthing DD would say that he should get paid less because he plays less tournaments.
It is not about pregnancy. Work less = get paid less.
Why doesn't Macie and her representatives present an option that Macie will do a lot of social media and videos when she is not touring. Trying to increase DD's sale by other ways than playing and doing well on the courses. Of course then Macie would have really needed to put effort in social media. Maybe they presented this option, or not.
She would have been paid the same if she had an ongoing contract. Another option for her would have been sign a new contract and get pregnant next year. I raise my hat to her that she was open about it, but gave DD this chance.
Of course DD could have been generous and given the contract she asked for, but she probably asked way more than what she made this year. Or make a contract that this year it would be lower and next year increase the pay.