Volunteers at Church Operated Restaurant Were Not Employees

Volunteers at Church Operated Restaurant Were Not Employees

In a decision rendered yesterday by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, it held that members of the church who volunteered to work at a for-profit restaurant operated by the church were not employees. Not being employees, there could not be a claim for violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act and its minimum compensation requirements. Acosta v. Cathedral Buffet, Inc., No. 17-3427 (6^th Cir. April 16, 2018).

The Grace Cathedral Church operated a restaurant on its campus named Cathedral Buffet. The restaurant, a for-profit venture, is open to the public. It is staffed by a combination of paid employees and unpaid church members. After a Department of Labor inspection, that followed by a trial with the District Court, it was held that the use of the unpaid volunteers violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and its minimum wage requirements. The Sixth Circuit would reverse the decision of the District Court (and in so doing hold against the Department of Labor) based upon the definition of who is an employee. In this instance, the court focused upon the fact that the volunteers never intended or expected to be compensated for their services. “We agree that a volunteer’s expectation of compensation is a threshold inquiry that must be satisfied before we assess the economic realities of the working relationship.” Slip op. at 7.

There was as well an interesting discussion of coercion. Various members of the church were regularly solicited to volunteer at the restaurant, solicitations that came both from the pulpit and by direct phone calls from the restaurant manager and even the pastor. It was reported as well that the restaurant manager would tell potential volunteers that if they did not provide services the pastor would hear about it. On the basis that these coercions were spiritual, rather than economic, the court found that they should not be part of its secular analysis.

The Religion Clause Blog has as well a review this decision; HERE IS A LINK to that review.