03/25/1997 01:30 PM Senate L&C

                                                                               
        SB 137 EXEMPT VOL. EMT/FIRE FGTR WAGE & HOUR LAW                      
                                                                              
 CHAIRMAN LEMAN announced  SB 137  to be up for consideration.                 
                                                                               
  MS. ANNETTE KREITZER,  Staff to Senator Leman, explained that SB 137         
 is a result of problems that some volunteer organizations, EMS and            
 fire fighting organizations in particular, are having with                    
 determining what is an employee and what is not an employee.                  
                                                                               
  MR. CRAIG LEWIS,  Interior Region Emergency Medical Services                 
 Council, supported SB 137.  The State's definition of                         
 employer/employee is more restrictive than the Federal Labor and              
 Standards Act (FLSA)'s definition.  Exemptions include religious              
 organizations, cemetery workers, and educational organizations to             
 name a few, but exclude humanitarian agencies or EMTs or other                
 volunteers.  This causes problems in terms of determining whether             
 a person is really a volunteer or an employee.  If a person is told           
 when to come to work, is provided with a uniform, is provided with            
 a vehicle to respond from, is provide the supplies and materials to           
 do the job, and then also receives pay in some form (although that            
 pay is just reimbursement from their own pocket to buy medical                
 supplies or gasoline), that customarily causes an interpretation to           
 be made by the wage and hour folks that that person is really an              
 employee when, in fact, the entire intention of that individual is            
 to volunteer.  It is hard to recruit people because of this problem           
 and makes it difficult from an organizational basis for there to be           
 private, non-profit corporations to help with the administrative              
 load to then be, in turn, identified as employers and then be                 
 encumbered with the large list of regulatory mandates they have to            
 include like worker's compensation.                                           
                                                                               
 MR. LEWIS said he has communicated with the Department of Labor in            
 Fairbanks and this is their language.                                         
                                                                               
 Number 192                                                                    
                                                                               
  MR. RANDY CARR,  Department Labor, said this bill primarily affects          
 those private non-profit organizations that provide fire and rescue           
 squad services in some of the less populated areas of the State.              
 About seven of those organizations would be affected by this bill.            
 The private non-profit organizations are at a disadvantage because            
 all the other volunteer fire departments and rescue operations are            
 under the auspicious of a political subdivision and they already              
 enjoy an exemption from the State Wage and Hour Act.  He noted that           
 they do not have any wage claims against the private for-profit               
 entities; nor have they had any because they try to work with them.           
                                                                               
  MS. MARTHA MOORE,  Community Health and Emergency Medical Services,          
 said they supported SB 137.                                                   
                                                                               
 Number 226                                                                    
                                                                               
  MS. VIRGINIA MCCARTHY,  Tok EMS, said their Chief, Tom Dean, had to          
 make an unexpected run to Fairbanks, and she was filling in.  She             
 explained that they make Anchorage and Fairbanks runs; the                    
 Fairbanks run takes 8 - 10 hours and the Anchorage run takes 12 -             
 15 hours and it's all voluntary.                                              
                                                                               
  SENATOR KELLY  asked how this interacts with the Worker's                    
 Compensation statute.                                                         
                                                                               
  MR. DWIGHT PERKINS,  Department of Labor, said he would have to              
 check to see if there is a correlation between the two.  He didn't            
 think there would be a problem.                                               
                                                                               
  MS. KREITZER  noted that she checked with the drafter and the                
 Department of Labor and there isn't any impact on Worker's                    
 Compensation.                                                                 
                                                                               
  SENATOR MILLER  moved to pass SB 137 from committee with individual          
 recommendations.  There were no objections and it was so ordered.