Joey Mercury has filed a lawsuit in the state of Maryland against Ring of Honor and Sinclair Broadcasting over forced resignation and for being misclassified as an independent contractor, according to WrestleZone.
Mercury claims he was paid substantially less than other individuals performing the same services for similar companies. He also claims that he was misclassified as an independent contractor.
He allegedly was forced to resign due to the company’s lack of concern for the talent. The lawsuit claims that he expressed his concerns several times to both ROH and Sinclair regarding the lack of safety protocols and available medical supervision during matches.
Mercury (real name Adam Birch) filed suit in the state of Maryland against Ring of Honor and Sinclair Broadcasting claiming that he was an employee rather than an independent contractor during his time at the company, a tenure that spanned from May of 2018 to October 2019. The suit also claims that he was forced to resign due to the company’s “lack of concern for the talent” and his increased workload for the company without a “commensurate increase” in pay.
The Agreement clearly misclassifies Birch as an independent contractor when he was, in fact, an employee. Sinclair and ROH retained the right to control every aspect of Birch’s performance of services and overrode his independent judgment regarding the best manner in which to perform his services. Sinclair and ROH also retained the right to prohibit Birch from performing services for other entities without consent. Sinclair and ROH retained the right to terminate Birch’s performance of services for Sinclair and ROH, but denied Birch the right to terminate his provision of services during the first six months of the Agreement. Sinclair and ROH retained the right to terminate the relationship for cause and imposed a restrictive covenant.
The intent and import of the Agreement was to make Birch an employee while misclassifying him as an independent contractor
If Mercury is indeed misclassified as an independent contractor, then the lawsuit continues to file claim of breach of contract. He also seeks royalties due and his final claim happens to be abusive discharge (in the alternative) and makes the following statements further alleged that ROH failed to conduct matches in a safe manner for its talent.
Mercury worked with Ring of Honor from May 2018 to October 2019 as a trainer and agent.
last month former ROH Women’s Champion Kelly Klein filed a lawsuit against ROH due to employment discrimination.
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