May a full-time city employee in the public works department volunteer for the civilian police reserve?
Yes, a full-time employee in the public works department may volunteer for the civilian police reserve. This question potentially implicates the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The basic rule is this: an employee cannot volunteer to provide the same type of services he or she is employed to perform for that same agency without losing his or her volunteer status and triggering the protections of the FLSA. So for example a full-time fire fighter cannot volunteer to work as a volunteer firefighter for the same agency. However, that does not seem to be a problem here. The person works for the public works department and so performs entirely different services from that performed by a reserve police officer. He/she should be able to serve as a true volunteer in the police reserve in the same city without raising FLSA issues. • Is there a new test for determining what constitutes “nominal compensation” for purposes of volunteer status under the Fair Labor Standards Act? In regard to
