Palm Beach County in Florida is set to spend up to $850,000 retaining outside legal help to defend itself in two lawsuits seeking class-action status.
One of the lawsuits seeking class-action status, filed in U.S. District Court, claims the county violated the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Florida Minimum Wage Act by misclassifying more than 600 people as volunteers.
The county uses volunteers at three of its four golf courses — Osprey Point, Okeeheelee and Park Ridge — as well as at its teaching facility at John Prince Golf Learning Center.
These golf volunteers work a number of jobs, including bag drop attendant, ranger and starter’s assistant, and are asked to perform tasks such as welcoming customers, retrieving and cleaning golf balls from the driving range and patrolling the course.
Instead of getting paid, volunteers are compensated with discounted and free golf rounds of golf, the lawsuit said.
“As a result of this ‘volunteer program,’ (the county’s) golf facilities obtain free labor as (the county) hires volunteers to perform the same labor for which private golf facilities must pay employee proper wages,” the lawsuit said.
The three golf volunteers named in the lawsuit worked at Osprey Point for three to four years starting in January 2016.
One volunteer alleged he was retaliated against because he questioned the legality of the volunteer program. In October, after a countywide furlough, he asked to be put on the schedule but was told “his services were no longer needed and that he was terminated.”
The county maintains that the golf volunteers were just that — volunteers, not county employees. The help-wanted advertisements for these positions specifically state that the county was looking for volunteers.
“Plaintiffs did not, and cannot, allege that they ever expected to receive compensation for their volunteer work,” the county countered in a motion to dismiss some of the counts.
The county agreed to shell out up to $500,000 for legal counsel in the lien interest lawsuit, and up to $350,000 for the golf course volunteer lawsuit. County Attorney Denise Marie Nieman, who will be involved in the legal strategy for these cases, confirmed that these are the only active suits against the county seeking class-action status.
