Treat workers in a way that protects the work status you want to maintain
Correctly classifying workers as employees or as contractors (or volunteers, interns or trainees) and properly classifying employees as nonexempt or exempt from overtime pay requires HR departments to chart their way through a maze of federal and state laws and regulations.
"Beware of the different rules that courts as well as federal and state agencies use" for classifying employees," said Christine V. Walters, SHRM-SCP, an independent consultant whose practice, FiveL Company, is in Westminster, Md. She spoke on March 29 at the Society for Human Resource Management's Employment Law & Compliance Conference in Washington, D.C.
Employee or Not?
"There are all sorts of workers who are not employees," Walters noted. "Make sure that you're treating them in a way that protects the relationship you want to establish."
Can for-profit employers use volunteers and unpaid interns?
"Yes, but it's difficult," Walters said. Here, as elsewhere, the answer often is "it depends" and "yes, maybe," requiring HR professionals to check federal and state regulations, she said.
For instance, volunteers cannot perform the same type of work performed by an employee, although there are exceptions for those who donate their services to religious, public service and nonprofit organizations.
Interns or trainees "may also be employees, depending on the circumstances of their activities for the employer," Walters noted....
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