Legalities of paid and unpaid work in Hybrid Organisations

Volunteering evolved with and within a specific organisational form, the non-profit organisation. However, since the 1980s a wealth of new organisational forms, including social enterprises, have blurred the traditional non-profit / for-profit divide and have also made claims to unpaid volunteer labour. Despite the rise of these new organisational types, academic work on volunteering is underdeveloped. By drawing on U.S. court cases, the intentions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to protect vulnerable workers and the wider literature on organisational logics, work, and volunteering, we explore two questions. One, when is it legal for hybrid organisations in the U.S. to legally draw on volunteer labour efforts. Two, when should (ought) they have access to this form of labour.