GUIDELINES FOR CHURCHES

GUIDELINES FOR CHURCHES :

We’re starting to see more work come in from Guideone, who specializes in writing workers comp. for churches. The attached has been put together to assist in auditing churches. There are some special rules and guidelines that you should be familiar with when auditing churches. Please review the attached info regarding churches. If you have any questions, please email them to contact@calaudits.com. You should also look up churches in PAAS and the WCIRB website for more information.

When auditing churches, some of the things you need to always look for are:

1- Churches are almost always non-profit organizations. They’ll usually have a board of directors, who are not paid and not active. You’ll normally include the clergy as your principals, but they CANNOT be excluded, but can be included at the principal’s min/max rule.

2- Most churches provide their clergy with free housing, vehicle and sometimes living expenses. Or they may give their clergy a housing and/or vehicle allowance. These are all to be included in the premium payroll.

3- Many churches operate a daycare, preschool or even a private school. If the church does operate one of these operations, make sure to verify if any employees are interchanging between the church and the school operations, because it could change their classification, based on the governing class code or their time could be divided between two class codes, as long as the insured keeps proper records, depending on the operations involved in.

CA 8840 Churches, Temples, Mosques, And Synagogues - Clergy, Professional Assistants, Organists, Or Members Of Choir - Including Clerical Office Employees. When Lodging Is Provided By The Employer, The Total Remuneration Shall Include The Market Value Of Such Lodging To The Employee.

Note

Employees assigned to this classification provide spiritual leadership, teaching, counseling, guidance and support for their congregations. Employees include but are not limited to clergy, organists, choir directors and members, youth directors, Sunday school teachers, instructors for religious studies, pastoral counselors, and clerical office employees.

This classification also applies to nursery attendants, childcare employees and baby-sitters provided their duties are restricted to providing care for children or infants during religious services.

Overnight camps operated by the employer shall be separately classified as 9048(1), Camps. The operation of child day care centers whereby services are provided to the public for a fee shall be separately classified as 9059, Day Care Centers.

The operation of academic schools for educating children in subjects, including but not limited to reading, language arts, mathematics, science, arts, history and geography shall be separately classified in accordance with the provisions of the Multiple Enterprises rule.