Jack Donlan, the executive director of the...

Jack Donlan, the executive director of the National Football League Management Council, testified that the league was not in violation of labor laws when it refused to reinstate striking players for games held last year shortly after the union ended its 24-day walkout.

Donlan testified for nearly four hours at a hearing in Washington before an administrative law judge of the National Labor Relations Board. He said the deadline for striking players to return to their clubs was made for “safety and competitive reasons, and we did not want to change them.”

The NFL Players Assn. is seeking an estimated $20 million in back pay it says the players are owed for games played Oct. 18-19 of last season, three days after the conclusion of the players’ strike.

The hearing before Judge Benjamin Schlesinger is expected to last about six weeks. Donlan is expected to continue his testimony today, and union head Gene Upshaw will testify in the weeks ahead.

In his opening argument, Nelson Levin, lead counsel for the NLRB board, said the NFL reporting deadline was an “arbitrarily imposed rule” designed to “punish” the strikers. He said the deadline rules “distinguished between two groups: the strikers and the non-strikers.”

He said replacement players could report later than union members, and noted that after the 57-day strike in 1982, the players returned Wednesday or Thursday and played games Sunday.