In two recent opinions, a California appeals court has addressed the issue of when a student can be considered the school’s employee.
The first case involved Nicole Land, a student at California Polytechnic State University. She enrolled in a course in animal husbandry, which was administered by the non-profit Cal Poly Foundation. Students logging at least 70 hours of course work in the class were eligible for a portion of the Foundation’s profits from the sale of the cattle at the end of the year.
400+ pages of state-specific, easy-read reference materials at your fingertips—fully updated! Check out the Guide to Employment Law for California Employers and get up to speed on everything you need to know.
Land was injured during the class and filed a workers’ comp claim, but the Foundation argued she wasn’t an employee and, therefore, wasn’t entitled to benefits. Now a California appeals court has sided with the Foundation. The court pointed out that Land wasn’t working alongside paid workers, but rather all participants were students like herself, and the project was strictly educational and not an established business. Also, Land didn’t receive wages and would have received nothing if the project didn’t make money. The court said that profit-sharing is usually inconsistent with an employer-employee relationship.
The other new case involved Kisha Shepard, an African-American student at Loyola Marymount University, who sued the university for race bias after her athletic scholarship wasn’t renewed. The appeals court ruled that for purposes of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, a student who receives an athletic scholarship isn’t a school employee, and therefore can’t sue for employment discrimination. The court noted that scholarship money isn’t equivalent to wages. What’s more, student athletes also aren’t considered employees in California for purposes of workers’ comp or public entity tort liability.