Are employers allowed to have employees volunteer for weekend events without paying them?

Question

We have a non-profit and employees are asked to volunteer occasionally for weekend outreach events. Some people have said that we cannot do that and we have to pay them for their time even though they are volunteering. Can anyone refer me to any specific california's laws stating the regulations surrounding this topic?

Best answer...10 points!

Answer 1

People are half right when they say volunteer is the key word. Are you volunteering out of the goodness of your heart, or are you "volunteering" because your employer will fire you if you don't? Your employer can not force you to volunteer for anything on your time. If they try take any discipline against you for not volunteering your time, it is a violation.

HOWEVER, there is a fine line. If I am an employer and I have two equal employees up for the same promotion, I am going to look and say "Gee, this employee volunteers and helps out all of the time, and this one doesn't." Guess who gets the promotion? The employer did not take any negative action against you, but they did reward the employee for helping out. That is legal.

Answer 2

It all depends on contracts with the individual employee. Is the "asking" to volunteer a condition for keeping the job?

If you are paying your workers, then they are employees and not volunteers. Best option is to check the company manual for the policies the employee agreed to upon hire. Some companies have different ones for each type of employee (accounting, IT, customer server, Human resources).

Answer 3

Not true at all. You can ask anyone to volunteer. You should make sure that they sign some sort of release waiver that does not hold you liable if they get hurt, though. Otherwise, they can sue you if the get injured.

Also, you cannot force anyone to volunteer for anything. If you are mandating that your employees do some volunteer work, then that is illegal. You just have to look at it logically.

Answer 4

The key word here is 'volunteer'. If you volunteer then it is not considered to be payable working hours. If it is 'mandatory' that you be there for the event, then it is considered payable working hours. The labor board would look at the process that was presented to the workers for the event.

Answer 5

Nope. If it's volunteer, they don't have to pay them. I ask my employees to donate their times to some events (Relay for Life, March of Dimes, etc.). What I try to do is if they give so much of their time, I try to give them a paid afternoon off. I can't always do that, but I do when I can.

Answer 6

Employees may volunteer as long as it is not a condition of employment. If they volunteer, the are obviously not paid.

-MM

Answer 7

OK, the word "Volunteer" is something done from your heart and no payment is required. If you don't want to do it without being paid, don't volunteer, it's that simple.

Answer 8

Under canons of common law, if the employees are not intimidated to do so, the employers are free to accept or reject their offer of voluntary work after making it clear to them that they do so on their own accord!

Answer 9

There is no law against asking for volunteers without pay. If you decide not to participate and they intimidate or fire you then it would be considered mandatory which is illegal unless otherwise specified in your contract if you have one.

Answer 10

Check this out:

http://www.calchamber.com/hrc

I don't know if California Chamber of Commerce will have this specific question on their website. If your nonprofit is a member of CCC, you may use their labor law hotline to find out.