Volunteer Workers

Bob Willits, Interim Director

If non-academic volunteers work in your department, the highlighted items below are offered to assist you in complying with Florida Statutes, Chapter 110, Part IV, regarding volunteer workers and their coverage by workers’ compensation.

• Require departmental supervisors to obtain your approval before allowing any volunteers to assist your unit.
• Have each volunteer provide to the appropriate departmental supervisor any personal and professional information relevant to the services he or she will provide. Supervisors should be faculty or staff members who have responsibility for the program for which the volunteer is recruited, accepted, and trained.
• Be sure that the individual will not receive monetary or material compensation from any source for his or her volunteer service.
• Have all volunteers complete the Record of Volunteer Service form. This form may be downloaded from the Workers’ Compensation section of our web site www.ups.ufl.edu.
• After required signatures have been obtained, provide a copy of the form to the volunteer and keep the original in a confidential file. The department for which the volunteer will perform services should maintain the file.
• Advise the volunteer that should he or she be injured while performing the designated volunteer work, he or she will be covered by either the University’s workers’ compensation program or state liability insurance as appropriate.
• University volunteers must be sixteen years of age or older. Individuals under the age of eighteen now are required to provide written parental/guardian approval and complete an Authorization for Treatment form prior to performing volunteer services. This form may be downloaded from the Workers’ Compensation section of our web site www.ups.ufl.edu.
• Provide each volunteer with a copy of the Reporting a Workplace Injury document (also available on our web site). All volunteers injured while performing the designated volunteer work must follow the steps listed on that document.

Have copies of the Record of Volunteer Service form and the Authorization for Treatment form readily accessible as the Workers’ Compensation Office may require copies if a volunteer is injured while performing the designated volunteer work. Copies of these forms may be downloaded from our web site and also are available from the personnel satellite offices and the Worker’ Compensation Office.

Remember:
A volunteer is any person who, of his or her own free will, provides services to the University with no monetary or material compensation, on a continuous, occasional, or one-time basis.

Volunteer status should not be used for any individual awaiting Immigration and Naturalization Service response to a request to change a visa status, or an extension of an expired visa.

Departmental or operational units should maintain auditable records of the number, location, and duties of volunteers, along with the total number of annual hours of volunteer service provided to the unit. Generally, your unit should maintain this information unless determined otherwise by the appropriate dean or director.

Volunteer services may cease at any time at the request of the volunteer or at the discretion of the University. A notice stating the effective date of the termination must be provided to the volunteer. This is accomplished by providing him or her with a copy of the signed Record of Volunteer Service form with the termination date filled in.

Please contact Henry Zunker, Manager of Workers’ Compensation, at (352) 392-4940, SC 622-4940, TDD 392-7734, should you have questions about this information.