BCBusiness

68 BCBUSINESS APRIL 2017 "Leaving the Apple ecosystem can be a tough thing to do." (Business Insider, Jan. 15, 2017) Coined in the 1930s to denote a biological network of organisms and their environment, the term ecosystem has spread from the natural to the corporate world. In 1993, a Harvard Busi- ness Review article suggested that "a company be viewed not as a member of a single industry but as part of a business ecosystem." Another take, from a 2015 Deloitte business trends report: many ecosystems "form to achieve something together that lies beyond the effective scope and capabilities of any individual actor"–witness the iPhone, iPad and App Store. eco•system JARGON WATCH [from Greek oikos + systema: home + organized whole] form a union, a move that was blocked in 2015. The debate was whether players were students or employees, says Thomas Lemieux, director of the Vancouver School of Economics at UBC. The National Labor Relations Board ruled that players were mostly students and that universities didn't have to pay them as employees. "One could not make this case for major junior hockey," Lemieux adds. "These are not school teams, so it is hard to know on which grounds players should not be treated as employees and paid at least the minimum wage." But the Western Hockey League disagrees. Claiming ‰nancial hardship, the WHL asked the B.C. government to declare players student athletes and therefore not subject to minimum wage regulations. Last October, the province granted the exemption. According to Charney, this legislation doesn't neces- sarily eliminate WHL players from the class action suit. Any who were active on a B.C. team before and after the legislation was passed are included, he says. Those who joined a B.C. team after the legislation passed may or may not be eligible for wages. "It is very unfortunate that the government of B.C. has intervened to deprive these boys and young men of the protections oŽered by employment standards legis- lation without even having their day in court," says Charney. Any glamorous profession, it seems, can entice the young to work for little or nothing in hopes of deferred fame, wealth and glory. TV stations and maga- zines often ask for free work, promising "exposure" (and inspiring the retort: "People die of exposure"). "It's justi‰able as long as the young person gets valuable training and bene‰ts from the intern- ship but provides little bene‰t to the employer," Lemieux says. "Just replacing a regular employee with an intern during the summer does provide substantial bene‰ts to the employer—in those cir- cumstances the intern (must) be paid." Of course, playing major junior hockey can help players get into the National Hockey League, Lemieux notes, but this doesn't change the fact that they're employees who bene‰t their bosses ‰nancially, so they should be subject to minimum-wage laws. Charney estimates the cost of paying major junior hockey players minimum wage at $300,000 per team, less than the $350,000 each franchise gets in revenue sharing from the NHL and Sportsnet. (Vancouver Giants tickets range from $19.50 to $30, plus service charges.) But as hockey fans hasten to point out, big paydays are coming for these kids. And it's true—for far less than one per cent of juniors. In their book Selling the Dream: How Hockey Parents and Their Kids Are Paying the Price for Our National Obsession, Ken Campbell and Jim Parcels looked at 30,000 Ontario major junior players. Forty-eight were eventually drafted by NHL teams, 39 signed contracts, 32 actually played, and 15 lasted more than a season. The odds aren't much better than those for street corner buskers who dream of winning Grammys. Congratulations to Brittany Whitmore and the other 30 Under 30 honourees! Learn more. Langara School of Management www.langara.ca/lsm

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