Ex-Golden State Warriors Ticket Exec Files Class Action Over Allegedly Unpaid Commissions, Retaliation, Discrimination [UPDATE]

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The Golden State Warriors have been hit with a proposed class action lawsuit filed by a former employee over alleged wage and hour infractions, retaliation, and discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

The plaintiff, who was reportedly number one in the NBA in group ticket sales revenue during the 2015-2016 season, worked as an account executive for the defending NBA champions from June 2012 through March 2018, the 31-page complaint says. Per the suit, the plaintiff was responsible for selling group ticket packages for company events during Warriors home games at Oakland’s Oracle Arena and was required to attend every home game to ensure clients enjoyed their events. In addition to a yearly salary plus commission on the revenue earned from group tickets he sold, the plaintiff, according to the case, received a non-discretionary bonus based on revenue from ticket sales and department group sales. 

The lawsuit charges that the Warriors unlawfully deducted a five-percent “Arena Debt Fund” fee from the plaintiff’s total sales commissions despite the man’s compensation agreements with the team not permitting any such deductions. This allegedly occurred after the plaintiff missed time during the 2017 NBA season due to an ADA-covered disability. Moreover, the plaintiff alleges that when his employment with the team ended in March, he was not paid all owed commissions and bonuses in a timely manner as required by the California Labor Code.

With regard to the plaintiff’s retaliation and discrimination claims, the case explains the plaintiff went on disability leave in November 2017 before returning in February 2018. Soon after his return, the suit says, the plaintiff complained to the team’s vice president of human resources that he was not paid all time-and-a-half overtime wages. During this exchange with the plaintiff, according to the lawsuit, the human resources VP “cut him off mid-sentence and changed the subject of the conversation” before eventually promising to investigate.

The complaint then says the plaintiff in March 2018 drafted a letter he planned to send to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver detailing alleged sexual and racial harassment, unpaid overtime wages and bonuses, unsafe working conditions, and the team’s reluctance to investigate wage and hour complaints. From the lawsuit:

“In the letter, Plaintiff complained that [the team’s group ticket sales director] constantly racially harassed and made sexist comments toward two Filipino employees … [The plaintiff] alleged [the team’s group ticket sales director] 'thought it was okay to constantly harass and make sexist comments about their ethnicity.' [The plaintiff] also alleged that [the team’s group ticket sales director] made [a Filipino employee] cry.”

The plaintiff wrote in the letter about ticket sales employees being “pushed so hard” and putting in “unprecedented” hours both in and out of the office to meet the team’s lofty sales goals. Moreover, the plaintiff allegedly planned to tell Commissioner Silver not only that ticket employees’ “commission structure has been cut even though we have continued to sell more revenue each season,” but that the team failed to pay bonuses promised for 2018.

After sharing a draft of the letter with the Warriors’ vice president of ticket sales on March 14, 2018, the plaintiff received an email two days later from the team’s general counsel that stated that unless the team “received confirmation from you today that you are resigning effective today, your employment with GSW will be terminated effective today.” Though the team’s counsel claimed the plaintiff was terminated due to poor performance, the plaintiff, the lawsuit says, argued that he was one of the top-performing ticket sales reps league-wide within the last two years.

The complaint can be read below.