The following procedures and guidelines are intended to remind members of the Biology Department of their legal responsibilities when allowing volunteers to participate in their research and teaching activities, and to assist members of the Biology Department in satisfying University and State requirements when engaging volunteer workers.
Please complete the Volunteer Form for all volunteers and return to department administrator. This includes Peer Facilitator positions for which the student is not receiving credit.
Who (and what) is a volunteer?
A volunteer is someone who of their own free will participates in a program without monetary or material reward and does not receive academic credit for participation. Volunteers who are minors (less than 18 years old) require special consideration as described below.
Unpaid volunteers are considered UW “employees”
Federal immigration authorities interpret volunteer service as employment. Any individual whose visa status does not authorize “unrestricted work” in the US cannot be a volunteer. The International Scholar’s Office should be consulted before allowing individuals with visas to serve as volunteers to ensure compliance and eligibility for volunteer service (https://ap.washington.edu/ahr/visas/volunteering/).
Students receiving credit (interns)
Student interns are NOT considered employees of the UW. Students receiving academic credit for work they do are classified as interns and are not covered by UW workers' compensation. Students (interns) must provide their own coverage for accidents or injuries that occur while performing intern work.
If the student will not be paid and will not receive academic credit, then the student is a true volunteer, and will be covered by workers’ compensation for their work at UW.
Volunteers under age 18 and Youth at UW program
The University has well-defined guidelines for volunteers classified as minors. More information see the Administrative Policy Statement 44.3 and UW HR. The UW guidelines conform to the Washington State guidelines in publication F700-022. These documents describe the records that must be kept, the hours that can be worked, and the specific activities that cannot be undertaken by minors of certain ages. The supervisor should be familiar with the contents of this publication before engaging volunteers who are minors.
We highly recommend anyone wanting to employ volunteers under age 18 to contact the Youth at UW program. The Youth at UW program is a central source for any UW work that engages with youth. They provide consultation, educational resources and coordination of efforts to promote youth safety and well-being throughout the UW.
The Youth at UW program helps departmental programs understand and comply with a new Administrative Policy Statement 10.13, which governs youth-directed activities happening at UW, or being directed by UW staff or faculty. This is essentially a policy designed to protect youth while they are engaging with the UW facilities or personnel. APS 10.13 has a pretty broad definition of “youth programs,” which means a lot of activities that might not previously have been thought of as youth programs are now considered in-scope of this policy and required to meet the policy requirements, also spelled out in more detail here.
In general, under-18 volunteers must not hold:
• Jobs using power-driven machines
• Jobs with possible exposure to bodily fluids or radioactive and hazardous substances
• Jobs requiring specialized personal protective equipment
- Examples include jobs requiring: chemical or bio-protection suits, respirators, helmets, gas/vapor masks, welders gear.
- Does NOT include jobs requiring: items meant only to protect clothing (e.g. aprons, lab coats), clean-room clothing, or items commonly used in lab classrooms, such as eye protection, hearing protection, gloves, or dust masks.
See further Washington State rules on hiring minors. More information on coverage for volunteers and the supervisor’s responsibilities is available through the Office of Risk Management: 206-543-0183 or workcomp@uw.edu.
Supervision
- The supervisor or another departmental employee designated by the supervisor (e.g., an advanced graduate student or postdoc) must be in the lab/work space with the volunteer. With prior approval from the Department Chair, this may be waived for volunteers with exceptional experiences or abilities (e.g., retirees from national labs, high school teachers whose normal duties include managing lab environments).
- In the special case where supervision will be the responsibility of a person who is not a department employee (e.g., high school teachers supervising their students who are participating as volunteers) this person must first be approved by the Department Chair.
Safety and training requirements
- It is the supervisor’s responsibility to instruct the volunteer that safety and safe working practices take priority over all other considerations in the work place.
- It is the supervisor’s responsibility to ensure that volunteers are made aware of, and comply with, all the safety considerations and requirements that a university employee engaged in the same activity would be subject to.
- The volunteer should not undertake any activity that requires special training unless they can demonstrate that they have received that training and that the training is current. This includes the operation or use of equipment or apparatus, together with any procedures needed to operate them.
The University of Washington is required to comply with the Washington Administrative Code, which mandates that all employers provide safe working environment for their employees.