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The Employer Handbook Blog
Can Unpaid Volunteers Sue for Discrimination?
A police department ran a volunteer program that looked and felt a lot like a job, complete with uniforms, badges, ranks, performance reviews, and a paramilitary chain of command. Three young women in the program alleged sex discrimination and retaliation, got dismissed, waited over two years to file charges, and then sued under Title VII. The court shut it all down.
TL;DR: A federal court in Colorado granted summary judgment for Colorado city, holding that participants in its Police Department’s Explorer Program were not “employees” under Title VII because they received no meaningful remuneration, and that the plaintiffs’ claims were independently time-barred because they filed EEOC charges more than two years after the 300-day deadline expired.
Volunteer Cops-in-Training Allege a Pattern of Sex Discrimination
The Explorer Program was a volunteer, educational program for young people ages 14 to 21 who were interested in law enforcement. Participants completed a training academy, attended biweekly meetings, wore uniforms, carried badges, received performance reviews, and operated within a paramilitary chain of command. They were not paid.
Three female participants, who joined between 2016 and 2018, alleged a pattern of sex-based discrimination: a male participant touched two female participants during a training exercise, dress code rules were enforced inequitably against women, one participant’s male supervisor retaliated against her for rejecting his romantic advances, and an advisor made what the plaintiffs characterized as a sexually harassing comment during a meeting. After the three women created a private group chat and Instagram page mocking other participants and advisors, they were suspended and ultimately dismissed from the program for violating its conduct and social media policies.
Two Years Late and Still Not Employees
The court disposed of the Title VII claims on two independent grounds.
First, the plaintiffs were not employees. Under the Tenth Circuit’s threshold remuneration test for unpaid workers, a plaintiff must show they received direct pay or indirect benefits that were “substantial or significant” and not merely incidental to the volunteer relationship. The court found that the benefits the plaintiffs identified, including uniforms, training, meeting space, mental health counseling, and civil service preference points for future job applications, were too incidental and conditional to clear that bar. The paramilitary structure, formal supervision, and disciplinary procedures went to control, not remuneration, and were irrelevant at this stage of the analysis.
Second, the claims were time-barred. The plaintiffs were dismissed in November 2019, and their appeals were denied in December 2019, meaning the 300-day EEOC filing deadline expired no later than October 2020. They did not file charges until December 2022. The court rejected their argument that a 2022 “ceremonial reinstatement,” which restored no actual benefits and required one plaintiff to immediately resign, constituted a constructive discharge that restarted the clock. The continuing violation doctrine did not apply either, because the dismissal was a discrete act, and the plaintiffs showed no new unlawful conduct between 2019 and 2022.
What This Means for Employers Running Volunteer Programs
The holding is a reminder that structure alone does not create an employment relationship under Title VII. But it also highlights how easily a well-organized volunteer program can start to look like one. Here is what employers should take away.
Audit Your Volunteer Benefits. If your volunteers receive benefits that look like employee benefits — pensions, insurance, tuition reimbursement, workers’ compensation — courts may have a harder time distinguishing them from actual employees. The more concrete and financially valuable the benefit, the closer you get to employee status.
Don’t Rely on “Volunteer” Labels. Courts look at substance, not titles. A program with ranks, uniforms, performance reviews, SOPs, and a chain of command looks like employment, even if it is not compensated. Document the educational and volunteer nature of these programs clearly.
Watch Your Deadlines, Even When They Help You. This employer won largely because the plaintiffs waited too long to file. But the underlying allegations, including unwanted physical contact, retaliatory discipline, and disparate enforcement of rules, are exactly the kind of facts that generate liability when claims are timely. Take complaints seriously the first time, regardless of whether the complainant is an employee or a volunteer.
Remember: Title VII Is Not the Only Game in Town. This decision turned on the federal threshold remuneration test, and the court declined to reach the plaintiffs’ claims under the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act, dismissing them without prejudice. State anti-discrimination statutes may define protected relationships more broadly than Title VII, and some states extend coverage to volunteers outright. An employer that clears the federal bar may still face liability under state law.
Volunteer programs can offer tremendous value. But the more they resemble real jobs, the harder it gets to argue that the people in them are not real employees, and a court might not always agree with you.