ARGUMENT

                                                I

                             VOLUNTEERS ARE NOT EMPLOYEES UNDER
                             THE ACT SINCE THEY DO NOT WORK FOR
                             WAGES.

         There are no Board cases squarely deciding the issue of whether a volunteer who

performs services for no compensation is an employee under the Act.  That is probably

because the proposition is so obvious that it has never been argued.  In one instance

where volunteers are specifically mentioned, the Board noted, with apparent approval,

that the Parties stipulated that volunteers were not employees within the meaning of the

Act and excluded them from the unit.  St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, 222 NLRB 674, 678 (1976).

However, while there are no cases directly on point, Board and Supreme Court rulings make

clear that the statutory definition of employee requires one who works for wages or a salary.

         Thus, in Leland Stanford Junior University, 214 NLRB 621, the Board held that research 

assistants in the University physics department were not "employees" because the money they 

received was not wages.  The Board stated:

            "[T]he payments to the RA's are in
            the nature of stipends or grants to
            permit them to pursue their advanced
            degrees and are not based on the skill
            or function of the particular individual
            or the nature of the research performed
            Accordingly, we conclude that the payments
            are not wages and the RA's are not 
            "employees" as defined in Section 2(3)
            of the Act.


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