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America Online Is Facing Challenge
Over Free Labor
By LISA NAPOLI
or the last 10 years, America Online Inc., the nation's
largest online service, has relied on volunteers to help
maintain the virtual community it offers its members. The
volunteers, who are known as "community leaders," perform
tasks like answering questions from subscribers, supervising
chat rooms and enforcing the service's rules.
The reward has been a free account with the service and,
America Online says, the opportunity to play a more active
role in its community of 16 million members.
Now at least seven former volunteers
are challenging the practice, and have
asked the Labor Department to look
into whether the use of volunteer labor
by America Online and its subsidiary,
America Online Communities Inc.,
violates the Federal Fair Labor
Standards Act.
A Labor Department spokesman would
neither confirm nor deny that AOL was
under investigation, but several former
volunteers provided copies of a letter
from the department's Employment Standards
Administration saying it would look into the matter.
Information about the investigation was published two weeks
ago on Observers.net, a Web site set up last September by
former volunteers.
A spokeswoman for America Online, Ann Brackbill, said on
Friday that she was aware of the Web site and the
information about an investigation, which she said had
prompted the company to "initiate contact" with the Labor
Department. But she added, "We do not elaborate on
discussions we have with regulatory agencies."
America Online, which has 12,000 employees, also has more
than 10,000 volunteers, Ms. Brackbill said. Volunteers
commit to a minimum of four hours a week of work, in
addition to training time and time spent on required
paperwork. Some of the former volunteers said they devoted
much more time to the company.
Marilyn Perkins of Chicago, a co-founder of Observers.net,
is one of at least seven people who have registered separate
complaints with the Labor Department. Ms. Perkins and
other volunteers acknowledge that they signed on to work
for AOL in exchange for a free account, which now costs
$21.95 a month. But many volunteers signed up when the
value of a free account was potentially much higher, because
the online service billed users at an hourly rate and charges
for heavy users ran in the hundreds of dollars.
Although their complaints vary, the former volunteers say
that AOL relies on volunteers to do work that should be
paid. Ms. Perkins says the company has dismissed
volunteers who have asked for compensation or complained
about the program, and has taken away their free accounts.
In their complaints to the Labor Department, the former
volunteers do not make explicit demands for back pay. The
issue, they said, is to publicize the situation and to change
the way the online service uses unpaid labor.
"Some are filing for revenge, some are filing to stop AOL
from abusing others, some simply want their AOL accounts
returned to them," said Kelly Hallissey, a former volunteer
who lives in Greensboro, N.C.
"I'm filing to support others' allegations and also to object to
how AOL has treated myself and many others."
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, a person must be
compensated for time spent at job-related activities that
benefit the employer, regardless of how the job is classified.
There is a difference between volunteering for a charitable
cause and volunteering to perform work that is critical to a
company's business, said Jeffrey Chamberlain, an
employment lawyer based in Albany who is not involved in
the AOL dispute.
In a claim like the one made by
the former AOL volunteers,
Chamberlain said: "The more it
looks like a real job, the less
likely it is to be deemed
volunteer. The kinds of things
they are describing would
make lawyers' bells go off."
But Ms. Brackbill defended the
volunteer program, saying it was a formalization of
contributions that AOL subscribers have made to the service
since it began in 1985. "It's an organic thing that sprouted
from what people love to do online," she said. "Community
and participation are the DNA of the Internet."
AOL is not the only online company to use volunteers.
Many Internet companies that offer community features rely
on members to enforce standards and to contribute to the
community in some fashion.
For instance, Ivillage, an online women's network, uses more
than 1,000 volunteers to manage message boards and chat
communities.
Michael Rubin, an employment lawyer in San Francisco,
says the nature of work is being redefined because of
computer and Internet connections that are readily available
in homes, potentially creating new legal issues for companies
that use remote help.
If found in violation of wage and hour laws, an employer
could be required to pay double the compensation to which
the workers should have been entitled, Rubin said. If it is
found that the violations were willful, the employer could be
subject to civil penalties and possibly criminal prosecution.
A decision against AOL could set a precedent for the online
industry that might force companies to rethink the way they
use volunteers, Rubin said, adding, "If the industry in fact
was kept operating because of volunteer workers, it may
have to reconfigure."
nytimes.com |
