"You could not pay me to cheer for the Buffalo Bills." The same is a reasonable position taken by a number of football falls. But what about the Buffalo Bills cheerleaders, the “Buffalo Jills” (seriously, that’s what they are called), should they be paid for cheering at Buffalo Bills home games?
In a continuing class action lawsuit brought by a number of former “Jills” against the team, (and others including the NFL), the plaintiffs allege that they were subject to incredibly stringent, if not downright ridiculous conditions of employment, such that the team’s position that the Jills were “independent contractors” was wrong. The Jills claim wage theft.
In an opinion released January 5, 2016, and available online at Ferrari v Mateczun et al., Index No. 804125-2014, the Honorable Timothy J. Drury, Erie County, New York, Supreme Court Judge held that the case could proceed as a class action. Express in the same is that the judge had found that the Jills were, in fact, employees and not independent contractors.
At last it would appear that the Buffalo Jills have something to cheer about.