$1.25 Million Is Not Enough—More Lawsuits for the Raiders

In January 2014, former Raiderette, Lacy T. made headlines when she sued the Raiders for minimum wage, meal/rest break, and unlawful deduction violations. After nine months of litigation, the class action reached a $1.25 million settlement.

Under the terms of the settlement agreement, each cheerleader in the class of 90 will be awarded approximately $6,400 for each season they cheered between 2010 and 2013. Another award of $2,500 will be given to those women who were part of the 2013-2014 squad. Each class representative, Lacy T. being one of them, was awarded an additional $10,000.

Now that the dust has settled on that case, another former Raiders’ cheerleader is kicking up dirt once again. Unhappy with the “measly” settlement, Susie Sanchez opted out of the original lawsuit and started one of her own. She cites many of the same original claims: lack of meal breaks/rest breaks, paying fines for the wrong equipment, and not being compensated for all hours worked.

Sanchez is adding new claims to this lawsuit. She alleges that she and other Raiderettes were consistently denied promised media exposure. Sanchez was purportedly approached by many media outlets that wanted to cover her experiences and life story, but the Raiders denied her the opportunity since it would not benefit them.

The new suit further alleges that the Raiderettes were forced to perform through injuries. They were told to “ignore lingering and painful injuries” throughout their rehearsals/practices and games or else they might be “benched” and thereafter fined.

After the settlement of the first lawsuit, the Raiderettes are now paid minimum wage for all hours worked. Previously, Raiderettes were paid a flat $125 per game that did not include any practices or outside charity events.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle