The legality of volunteering for “for profit” conventions is a complicated issue, and one that’s caused some headaches for con organizers. Notably, as we reported last year, a class action lawsuit was filed against Emerald City Comicon over their ‘minions’ (the term the con used for convention workers) not being paid while working for the con’s old, pre-ReedPop acquisition management.

Well, it looks like that lawsuit has now been settled.

In the agreement, Emerald City Comicon has agreed to pay out $493,227.84. That number includes the plaintiff’s attorneys’ fees ($123,300), $5000 to the plaintiff, and additional funds to pay an administrator to dispense the money. The rest will be paid out to people who worked for Emerald City Comicon in 2014 and 2015, and applications and necessary forms can be found here.

As you’d expect, Emerald City Comicon doesn’t admit to any wrong doing in the case. So while the threat of a lawsuit does seem like an obvious deterrent to for profit shows using unpaid labor, it doesn’t really change the legal playing field at all. The writing on the wall seems obvious though — if you’re running a for profit show, you need to pay your workforce.

A former volunteer has filed a class action lawsuit against Emerald City Comicon, claiming that the convention owes them wages for time worked at the for-profit convention. They claim that the event treated “minions” (the con’s term for their workers) like employees instead of volunteers at their 2014 and 2015 conventions.

The legality of volunteering for for-profit companies is a complicated question, but the state of Washington in theory doesn’t allow it. ReedPOP, who recently took over ECCC, appear acutely aware of this, as they began paying workers with the 2016 event.

How this pans out could set a precedent for for-profit conventions in the state of Washington, and it’ll be interesting to see how this one pans out.

Via Seattlish