Paid staff vs Volunteer staff

Martin

What are the policies for volunteer and paid staff performing the same job responsibilities? Any information on this would be greatly appreciated.

Shadowfax

Are you public sector? Generally, staff maynot volunteer to perform the same services for which they are otherwise paid.

Martin

We are a private non-profit museum, but our foundation is a public foundation.

Shadowfax

There are several wage and hour opinion letters from the DOL that make it pretty clear an employee may not volunteer to perform serivces for his otherwsise employer if the services are the same as those he provides for compensation. Essentially, the DOL will not split time between 'volunteer' and 'compensable' time for the employee's services. Your office manager could though deliver meals to the sick, or other services you might provide. Hope that helps. If you want the cite of the letters let me know and I will try to find them.

marc

We are also a non-profit. We have several functions where paid staff work along side community volunteers.

Martin

We have paid staff (interpreters) in some of our historic buildings and we also have community volunteers that perform the same function(interpreting)these same buildings. Is this allowable under DOL regulations? I do understand we can't allow an employee to volunteer to do the same kind of work they are normally paid to do. I need a little more clarification on this.Any help would be appreciated.

Shadowfax

Yes Martin, I think you can do as proposed. There are several DOL letters discussing exactly what a volunteer may be paid - expenses, 'nominal' stipend, etc. So long as your ees volunteer to do other duties than those you pay them for, you should be ok.

pork1

Martin: I recommend you contact your local DOL wage and hour persons for their advice on the "voluntary" and "staff" doing the very same function or task; one you pay as staff and one you do not pay as a "voluntary worker". I would bet they will tell you the FLSA covers both workers. Your company is recognizing that there is physical work to be done and you are paying one and not paying the other to do the very same task. I believe, both must be hired and paid accordingly to the hours worked. If the volunteer is strickly a person you would call in for a short period of time, you might be able to pay this person as "contract labor" for a given short piece of physical work and then the need is no longer required.

We all must be aware and concerned for the "permitted to do physical work" for the benefit of the company aspect of the FLSA.

PORK

marc

Lots of non-profits have volunteers do a lot of work along side paid workers. Our State allows this as long as the volunteer clearly understands they will not be paid for the work. We have them sign a statement to this effect.

For some great examples, check out your local humane society. Community members do various jobs throughout the shelters, caring for animals, cleaning the pens, and a host of other jobs. Quite often the volunteers work right along with paid staff.

While I have not checked out lots of States, I would think all have allowances for this type of community volunteer work.