Legal Question in Employment Law in Pennsylvania

Re: Being paid as a volunteer?

You asked about volunteer versus paid work.

This information is general and must not be relied upon as conclusive as their may be law that applies of which I am not aware.

Generally, an employee may not work as a volunteer for an employer outside of the wage and hour laws. This includes the direct employer and any affiliate. These laws prevent employers from either requiring or otherwise strong-arming employees into performing volunteer duties. In other words, even if the employee wishes to do volunteer work then the employee cannot be permitted to do volunteer work for the business or any affiliate.

There are cases in which employers have been found liable for wage and hour violations where employees have been volunteered to work on non-work related projects (e.g. staffing at community events or performing community services such as roadside cleanups). Employers have been dinged for numerous means of circumventing the wage and hour laws (even where the employee was responsible). I recall a case where an employer was dinged where a staff employee worked for a vendor (cleaning service) as his second job and. The employer was dinged for violation of wage and hour laws for not ensuring that the employee was paid OT wages for OT time worked on its premises as a vendor employed janitor at night.

In my own opinion a volunteer ambulance service should be staffed by volunteers. Period. There is no reason to have paid staff. The service must do a better job of recruiting, should consider suspending service or consider alternative staffing arrangements. (e.g. when I was in high school I earned my EMT certificate and started a crew to staff our local ambulance squad during the day. We would have an adult driver but otherwise the ambulance would be staffed with 2 or 3 students.

The argument is that there aren't enough volunteers during the day anymore. Well it is just as likely that there aren't enough legitimate calls during the day to justify paying employees either. There is no reason that the community cannot pay a service to respond.

I would strongly counsel the ambulance service to lay off the paid employees rather than take on the liabilities of an employer.

Regards,

Roger