A Centennial woman filed a federal lawsuit against Vox Media Friday, claiming the media company broke labor laws by underpaying — or not paying at all — managing editors at its more than 300 SB Nation sites.
Cheryl Bradley worked as a site manager for SB Nation’s Mile High Hockey from June 2013 to February 2015. She often worked 30-40 hours a week, at times up to 50 hours, but was only paid a monthly $125 stipend, according to the lawsuit.
SB Nation is a series of local sites owned by Vox Media, a billion-dollar Delaware corporation that is based in Washington, D.C.
“On behalf of Cheryl Bradley, she’d just like to say her goal here is to obtain justice for all of the site managers who made Vox’s financial success a reality,” Bradley’s lawyer James Goodley said.
Goodley works with Jennings Sigmond, a law firm based out of Philadelphia that works exclusively on labor and employment law and whose clients are unions and employees.
Bradley is seeking back pay damages, liquidated damages and lawyer fees. Bradley filed a collective lawsuit on behalf of herself and all current or former site managers, managing editors and similar employees who worked for SB Nation in the past three years.
In February 2015, a Mile High Hockey staff writer wrote an article saying SB Nation’s target audience was men. The company’s National Hockey League manager immediately deleted the post and banned the writer from SB Nation, according to the lawsuit.
Bradley later defended the staff writer and was fired less than a week later under false pretexts, the lawsuit claims.
Although Bradley signed a blogger’s contract, her legal team is arguing that she was functioning as an employee. Among the reasons was that she relied on Vox for income and worked extensive hours, making outside employment difficult, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit references a Deadspin investigative article that detailed SB Nations paying practices. The site was the first to report the lawsuit on Friday.
UPDATE 9/2/2017 3:25 p.m.: This article was updated to show that Bradley worked up to 50 hours a week sometimes.
