Court says overtime pay doesn’t apply to seminarians

SEATTLE — Two Catholic seminarians do not have the right to receive overtime wages from the Archdiocese of Seattle, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled March 16.

While training to become Catholic priests in Mexico, Cesar Rosas and Jesus Alcazar served a Washington state parish as part of a diocesan placement program. The men said they were forced to work overtime without pay cleaning the parish and assisting at Mass, in violation of Washington’s Minimum Wage Act.

But employment decisions by religious groups are subject to a “ministerial exception” under the Constitution’s First Amendment, the appeals court ruled.

“This ‘ministerial exception’ helps preserve the wall between church and state from even the mundane government intrusion presented here,” Judge Robert Beezer wrote.

The seminarians argued that their primary functions at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Marysville, Wash., were nonreligious. But the circuit court, which upheld a lower court’s decision, adopted a three-part test to determine that the ministerial exception applied: they were employed by a religious institution, chosen for the position largely on religious criteria and performed religious duties.