Additional un-paid duties.

Watachi

Can some employees be required to perform additional duties, such as
being on the fire fighting team, when others are not? This is a large
electricity prudicing utility and it draws it's fire brigade members
from the various trades and crafts. Some volunteer, however others
are simply told that they will support the fire brigade. There is no
additional compensation involved. Even some perma-temps are forced
to participate.

Down_the_Middle

Presumably, these employees will be paid for hours worked on these various committees. If that's the case, the employer can certainly designate addt'l job-related duties to whomever you choose. The key, however, is getting the individual to accept the invitation and willingly participate vs. being mandated to do this addt'l task.

Watachi

My question has nothing to do with "committees". It is about
being required to participate on the site fire brigade. This
is about requiring people to participate in fire fighting drills
and to respond to the real thing should one occur. The question was
whether some employees could be forced to participate while others
are exempted.
Thanks

Down_the_Middle

I think the short answer to your question is YES. What's the alternative? Getting everyone or no one. Presumably there's some criteria for this appointment, but as long as this is done w/o discriminating against certain groups of employees, I can't imagine anyone being able to object to the assignment of fire brigade duties.

System

You pretty much can give each employee any duty you want. Potential trouble spots that come to mind:

-- If the employees are unionized or have individual employment contracts.

-- If the different duties look like discrimination. For example, if women aren't required to have fire duty.

-- If nonexempt employees work additional hours without pay (Down-the-Middle's question). This isn't a problem if all of their fire brigade duties (voluntary or not) occur during working hours.

James Sokolowski
Senior Editor
M. Lee Smith Publishers