Clean An Airplane, Get a Free T-Shirt

Clearly, Delta Airlines is facing desparate times, being in bankruptcy and nearly facing a crippling strike by its pilots.

So to cheer everyone up, the St. Petersburg Times is reporting that Delta thought it would be a good idea to get its employees to give additional free labor and volunteer to clean airplanes at night on their own time.  The reward for such loyalty?: "[A] free T-shirt, reward points good for merchandise and a chance to show their pride in the airline."

And though at least one person in the same article opined that such requests would rub already strained employees the wrong way, suprisingly some 300 employees volunteered for the first shift on "Clean Day" in Atlanta.

And what about the employment law legality of this arrangement from a Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) standpoint?  Well, I think the attorney quoted in the story has it right:

It's legal for employers to ask workers to volunteer their time as long as it's not "tongue in cheek (where) if you don't volunteer, you don't have a job," said Dean Papas, an employment lawyer in Tampa.

Would I volunteer in such a situation? Only if the CEO was cleaning the airplane window next to mine.

PS