by Ned Oliver
In a solicitation that seeks 250 residents to volunteer at Redskins training camp, Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones calls the chance to work unpaid "an incredible opportunity to … promote civic pride."
But to J.H. Verkerke, a University of Virginia law professor specializing in employment regulations, it looks more like "an amusing instance of a for-profit company using free labor in its commercial activities."
Verkerke says the city and the Washington Redskins have structured the training camp ambassadors program in a way that creatively skirts federal employment laws that forbid for-profit corporations from using unpaid laborers such as volunteers and interns. "If the Redskins had created the ambassadors program to recruit free help in the stadium on game days," Verkerke says, "there is little doubt it would violate federal wage and hour law."
He says that's likely why the Redskins turned to the city to run the program.…[ Read more ]