Independent contractors vs. anti-trust laws

A fascinating petition for a writ of certiorari has been filed in the US Supreme Court. The case is Confederación Hípica de Puerto Rico, Inc. v. Confederación de Jinetes Puertorriqueños, Inc. [Petition and Briefs] Of course, there's no telling whether the Court will grant certiorari and decide this case.

In Puerto Rico, jockeys are independent contractors, and horse owners hire jockeys on a race-by-race basis. When a group of 37 jockeys demanded higher pay, they refused to race for three days, and the racetrack had to cancel races. The racetrack sued the jockeys, alleging that the they engaged in a group boycott in violation of federal antitrust law. However, the 1st Circuit [Opinion] ruled that the jockeys' actions were not subject to the ant-trust laws due to the "labor exemption."

The statutory labor exemption states: “No court of the United States * * * shall have jurisdiction to issue any restraining order or temporary or permanent injunction in a case involving or growing out of a labor dispute.”

The Norris-LaGuardia Act defines a "labor dispute" as “any controversy concerning terms or conditions of employment, or concerning the association or representation of persons in negotiating, fixing, maintaining, changing, or seeking to arrange terms or conditions of employment, regardless of whether or not the disputants stand in the proximate relation of employer and employee.”

The racetrack's position is that the labor exemption applies only to employees, and not to independent contractors.

The 1st Circuit, however, ruled that the “critical distinction in applying the labor-dispute exemption” is that “disputes about wages for labor fall within the exemption,” regardless of whether the work is that of independent contractors.

Prediction: I think the jockeys will win if the Court actually decides this case. Remember New Prime v. Oliveira (US Supreme Court 2019) [PDF]. That was a Federal Arbitration Act case in which the Court held that certain independent contractors (not merely employees) were exempt from the Act because the Act’s term “contract of employment” refers to any agreement to perform work – as understood in 1925. Norris LaGuardia was enacted in 1932 and I think "terms or conditions of employment" will also apply to independent contractors.