In a move that could pave the way for college athletes gaining the right to unionize and collectively bargain wages, the National Labor Relations Board’s Los Angeles office issued a formal complaint on Thursday against the NCAA, the Pac-12, and USC alleging that USC athletes have been unlawfully misclassified as student-athletes rather than employees.

According to USA Today’s Steve Berkowitz, a hearing on Nov. 7 will see the NLRB’s general counsel seek an order requiring all three parties to “reclassify the Players as employees rather than as ‘student-athletes’ in their files.”

The hearing will be heard before an administrative law judge. The decision can be appealed all the way up to federal court.

Per Berkowitz, the complaint alleges that the NCAA, the Pac-12, and USC have been joint employers of the athletes because the NCAA and Pac-12 had control over the athletes’ working conditions.

The joint-employer approach means the case would ultimately apply not just to athletes at private schools like USC but also to those at public institutions, according to Gabe Feldman, director of the Tulane Sports Law Program.

Feldman told Berkowitz that, with the complaint, “We are potentially one step closer to college athletes having the right to unionize and collectively bargain over their wages, hours, and other conditions of employment.”

In 2015, the NLRB unanimously rejected a bid from football players at Northwestern to unionize. They did not rule directly on the topic being relitigated today, instead citing the wide-ranging impact of the petition would not have promoted “stability in labor relations,” per the New York Times.