Opinion ID: 539188
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Applicability of the Fair Labor Standards Act

Text: 16 Shenandoah urges that the strictures of the Fair Labor Standards Act do not apply to Roanoke Valley. We disagree. Two conditions are necessary for the FLSA to apply. The first is that Roanoke Valley be an enterprise within the definition of the Act; the second is that the teachers and support staff be employees. See 29 U.S.C. Secs. 203(r) & (e); Tony & Susan Alamo Found. v. Secretary of Labor, 471 U.S. 290, 295, 105 S.Ct. 1953, 1958, 85 L.Ed.2d 278 (1985). We begin with the question of enterprise. 17 When the FLSA was amended in 1961 to cover enterprises as well as individuals, nonprofit religious and educational organizations were exempt, provided they were not engaging in ordinary commercial activities. See Alamo, 471 U.S. at 297-98, 105 S.Ct. at 1959. 6 However, Congress amended the statute again in 1966 to include public and private schools in the definition of enterprise. The amended statute explicitly states that nonprofit schools are within the scope of the Act: 18 Enterprise means the related activities performed (either through unified operation or common control) by any person or persons for a common business purpose, and includes all such activities whether performed in one or more establishments or by one or more corporate or other organizational units.... For purposes of this subsection, the activities performed by any person or persons-- 19 (1) in connection with the operation of ... a preschool, elementary or secondary school, or an institution of higher education (regardless of whether or not such ... school is public or private or operated for profit or not for profit).... 20 .... 21 shall be deemed to be activities performed for a business purpose. 22 29 U.S.C. Sec. 203(r); see also 29 U.S.C. Sec. 203(s)(5). 23 Shenandoah urges that this amendment does not demonstrate a clear affirmative intention by Congress that the Act apply to church-operated schools. NLRB v. Catholic Bishop, 440 U.S. 490, 501, 99 S.Ct. 1313, 1319, 59 L.Ed.2d 533 (1979). 7 However, an examination of the legislative history of the amendment belies that argument. The provision as originally presented to the House would have covered institutions of higher learning but not elementary and secondary schools. Congressman Collier proposed the language adding public and private elementary and secondary schools. During debate, the following exchange took place: 24 Mr. PUCINSKI. Let us consider a parochial elementary school, in which the nuns do the work in the cafeteria. Would they have to be paid a minimum wage? 25 Mr. COLLIER. No, they would not be covered. 26 Mr. BURTON of California. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield? 27 Mr. COLLIER. I am delighted to yield to the gentleman from California. 28 Mr. BURTON of California. As I understand, it is not the gentleman's intention to include members of a religious order under the definition of an employee, and therefore a nun would not be considered an employee. Therefore, a minimum wage would not be required to be paid a nun. Am I correct in my understanding of the gentleman's intention? 29 Mr. COLLIER. That is correct. I did not intend to cover them. 30 112 Cong.Rec. 11371 (1966). The critical concern for the legislators was not whether a parochial elementary school was an enterprise. They assumed that such a school was an enterprise and moved directly to the separate question of whether the nun was an employee. 31 The conclusion that church-operated schools are encompassed within the Act's definition of enterprise is supported by subsequent legislative action. Cf. Andrus v. Shell Oil Co., 446 U.S. 657, 666, 100 S.Ct. 1932, 1938, 64 L.Ed.2d 593 (1980); see also 2A Sutherland Statutory Construction Sec. 49.11 (Sands 4th ed. 1984). In 1977, Congress again amended the FLSA to create an exemption for religious or non-profit educational conference center[s]. 29 U.S.C. Sec. 213(a)(3); see also 123 Cong.Rec. 32724-26 (1977). Such an exemption would not have been necessary if church-operated educational facilities had been excluded under the statutory definition of enterprise. 32 Inclusion of church-operated schools under the protective umbrella of the Act is also consistent with Supreme Court precedent construing the FLSA liberally to apply to the furthest reaches consistent with congressional direction. Alamo, 471 U.S. at 296, 105 S.Ct. at 1959 (quoting Mitchell v. Lublin, McGaughy & Assocs., 358 U.S. 207, 211, 79 S.Ct. 260, 264, 3 L.Ed.2d 243 (1959)). 33 We therefore hold that the history of the statute demonstrates an affirmative intention by legislators to treat church-operated schools as enterprises. Accord Marshall v. First Baptist Church, 23 Wage & Hour Cas. (BNA) 386, 1977 WL 1755 (D.S.C.1977); see also Ritter v. Mount St. Mary's College, 495 F.Supp. 724 (D.Md.1980) (holding to the contrary), rev'd in relevant part, 738 F.2d 431 (4th Cir.1984) (table). The Ninth Circuit implicitly acknowledged this principle in EEOC v. Fremont Christian School, 781 F.2d 1362, 1367 (9th Cir.1986), applying the equal pay provisions of the FLSA to a church-operated school which provided health insurance only for heads of households. See also Russell v. Belmont College, 554 F.Supp. 667, 670-76 (M.D.Tenn.1982) (denying college's motion for summary judgment); Marshall v. Pacific Union Conference, 23 Wage & Hour Cas. (BNA) 316, 1977 WL 885 (C.D.Cal.1977) (denying conference's motion for summary judgment) 8 ; cf. Archbishop of Roman Catholic Apostolic Archdiocese v. Guardiola, 628 F.Supp. 1173, 1178-79 (D.P.R.1985) (holding lay Catholic Church employees are covered by the Puerto Rico Minimum Wage Act, which is modeled on the FLSA). 9 34 Shenandoah urges nevertheless that Roanoke Valley should not be covered by the statute because it is inextricably intertwined with the church. It argues that school employees are really church employees and therefore not covered by the FLSA. Shenandoah asserts that the church and school share a common physical plant and a common payroll account, that the associate pastor for school ministries reports to the pastor, that the pastor hires all teachers, and that school staff must subscribe to Shenandoah's statement of faith. 10 Shenandoah insists, The school is the church. 35 Shenandoah relies on Corporation of Presiding Bishop v. Amos, 483 U.S. 327, 107 S.Ct. 2862, 97 L.Ed.2d 273 (1987), and Forest Hills Early Learning Center v. Grace Baptist Church, 846 F.2d 260, 263-64 (4th Cir.1988), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 109 S.Ct. 837, 102 L.Ed.2d 969 (1989), for the proposition that the government should be required to accept the church's characterization of Roanoke Valley as an inseverable part of the church. Shenandoah's reliance is misplaced. These cases only considered whether legislators could exempt religious organizations from certain statutory provisions without running afoul of the First Amendment. They concluded that such exemptions were constitutionally permissible; they did not hold that they were mandatory. See County of Allegheny v. Pittsburgh ACLU, 492 U.S. ----, 109 S.Ct. 3086, 3105 n. 51, 106 L.Ed.2d 472 (1989). The case sub judice presents an entirely different question--whether Congress intended the FLSA to include (not exclude, as in Amos and Forest Hills ) church-operated schools. We hold that Congress affirmatively intended the Act to apply to such schools. 36 Shenandoah also asserts that the second criterion for application of the Fair Labor Standards Act is not present here because Roanoke Valley teachers are not employees. 11 It urges that they are ministers and therefore covered by the ministerial exemption from the Act. 12 This exemption is derived from the congressional debate excerpted above and delineated in guidelines issued by the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Administrator: 37 Persons such as nuns, monks, priests, lay brothers, ministers, deacons and other members of religious orders who serve pursuant to their religious obligations in the schools ... operated by their church or religious order shall not be considered to be employees. 38 Field Operations Handbook, Wage and Hour Division, U.S. Dep't of Labor, Sec. 10b03(b) (1967). Shenandoah states that Roanoke Valley teachers consider teaching to be their personal ministry. It urges that all classes are taught from a pervasively religious perspective, and that teachers lead students in prayer and are required to subscribe to the Shenandoah statement of faith as a condition of employment. 39 Shenandoah contends that the characterization of Roanoke Valley teachers as ministers is consistent with this court's holding in Rayburn v. General Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists, 772 F.2d 1164 (4th Cir.1985), cert. denied, 478 U.S. 1020, 106 S.Ct. 3333, 92 L.Ed.2d 739 (1986). In Rayburn, we explained that the ministerial exemption in Title VII depended upon the function of the position, not simply on ordination. Id. at 1168. But the facts of Rayburn are far removed from those of the case at bar. There the claimant, whom we ultimately characterized as clergy, was a woman who held the degree of Master of Divinity from the church's theological seminary and who sought appointment to the seven-person pastoral staff of one of the denomination's largest congregations. 13 40 The teachers in the present case perform no sacerdotal functions; neither do they serve as church governors. They belong to no clearly delineated religious order. Shenandoah insists that there is no cognizable difference between its teachers and nuns who teach in church-affiliated schools, but it has failed to adequately support this assertion. 14 Cf. Fiedler v. Marumsco Christian School, 631 F.2d 1144, 1153 (4th Cir.1980); Triple AAA Co. v. Wirtz, 378 F.2d 884, 887 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 389 U.S. 959, 88 S.Ct. 338, 19 L.Ed.2d 364 (1967). 41 This is not to minimize the vocation of the Roanoke Valley teachers or the sincerity which they bring to it. But [e]xemptions from the Fair Labor Standards Act are narrowly construed, Hodgson v. Duke Univ., 460 F.2d 172, 174 (4th Cir.1972), and, as the district court has observed, the exemption of these teachers would create an exception capable of swallowing up the rule. Shenandoah I, 573 F.Supp. at 323. We therefore decline to give the ministerial exemption the sweeping interpretation Shenandoah seeks. 15 The Supreme Court has explained [t]he test of employment under the Act is one of 'economic reality.'  Alamo, 471 U.S. at 301, 105 S.Ct. at 1961. The economic reality in this case is that the Roanoke Valley teachers are employed as lay teachers in a church-operated private school. 42 We therefore hold that Congress intended church-operated schools such as Roanoke Valley to be covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act, and that their teachers and support staff are employees under the Act. We next consider the constitutional challenges raised by Shenandoah Baptist to application of the statute.