By Samindra Kunti
April 13 – An American court has approved a partial deal between players of the United States women’s national team and the U.S. Soccer Federation over unequal working conditions.
The settlement will allow the players to resume their legal battle over compensation in a long-running dispute between the women’s team and U.S. Soccer over equal pay.
The judge Gary Klausner rubber-stamped an agreement on working conditions that the sides had reached last year. Last May, Klausner had thrown out the players’ core arguments about equal pay, but the current settlement focuses on working conditions including the use of charter flights for travel, venue selection, the number of support staff and hotel accommodation.
The settlement allows the players to appeal Klausner’s earlier decision. “Now that this is behind us, we intend to appeal the court’s equal pay decision, which does not account for the fact that women players have been paid at lesser rates than men who do the same job,” said the players’ spokeswoman, Molly Levinson.
“Finally, giving these athletes access to facilities, training, care, and professional support is the next step needed in the long and hard work to grow the game of women’s football.”
In a statement, U.S. Soccer said it was hopeful for an out of court resolution.
“U.S. Soccer is 100% committed to equal pay. We have offered the USWNT the identical compensation provided to our men’s players for all matches controlled by U.S. Soccer,” wrote the federation.
“Unfortunately, the USWNT has not accepted our offer or our long-standing invitation to meet to try to find a resolution unless U.S. Soccer first agrees to make up the difference between the Men’s and Women’s World Cup prize money, which is determined, controlled and paid for by FIFA.”
Levinson responded to U.S Soccer’s statement, calling it “misleading.”
“It is so disappointing and disheartening to see yet another misleading statement without a meaningful effort from USSF on equal pay,” said Levinson. “USSF has not offered to meet with the players to resolve equal pay. In truth, USSF’s last settlement offer, which was over a year ago, offered far less than equal pay to the players.”
In March 2019, the women’s players sued U.S. Soccer, arguing that they had been subjected to years of unequal pay. The players had been advocating for equal pay for years with protests on the field, in interviews and through social media. The US women’s national team won the last two World Cups.
But last May judge Klausner rejected their equal pay argument. He wrote that he had been convinced that “the WNT has been paid more on both a cumulative and an average per-game basis than the MNT” over the years.
Contact the writer of this story, Samindra Kunti, at moc.l1734918293labto1734918293ofdlr1734918293owedi1734918293sni@o1734918293fni1734918293