Know Your Contract
Teacher/ESP -- Volunteering for the District
There are time clocks in my building now! What is the deal?
In the early 1930s the US Congress passed a law known as the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). This law requires that employers compensate staff for all hours worked on behalf of the employer and requires overtime pay at the rate of time and one-half for all hours worked in excess of 40 hours in a week. This law prohibited employers from allowing employees to “volunteer” their services to the employer as many employers used volunteering as a way to avoid paying employees for their work.
In 1985 the law was amended to ensure that true volunteer activities were not prohibited while still making sure that employers were not pressuring employees to “volunteer.” They set up the following tests for what is a true volunteer:
1. The volunteer offers his/her time without any expectation of compensation;
2. The volunteer offers his/her time freely and without any promise, pressure or coercion either explicit or implied; and,
3. The volunteer does not provide the same type of services to the employer as the volunteer activity.
All of these conditions must be met in order for the employer not to be liable for compensation. So if the employee feels that they “must” volunteer because of comments made by the evaluator or by the evaluation system, then the activity is not truly a volunteer activity and the “volunteer” must be paid their normal hourly rate.
TEACHER: This law does not cover teachers, just ESP. But the contract for teachers does state that any work required after their contract day must be paid at their hourly rate. So if the supervisor requires them to attend functions or to participate in activities after hours, they too must be paid.
As with many other rights you have under the contract, the district is not obligated to inform you of your rights. It is up to you to Know Your Contract.
This message is intended for members of the Westminster Education Association
and is not intended for distribution to the general public.
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This page was last updated on 09/28/2011
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