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Volunteering England to examine volunteer rights

By Paul Jarvis, Third Sector, 3 November 2009

Concerns that unpaid staff can be dismissed without appeal

Volunteering England is to open an inquiry into the rights of volunteers next month.

The inquiry is being held in response to recent concerns about unpaid workers having no legal rights, which means they can be dismissed without a hearing or appeal.

"It is time to take a considered look at a range of issues related to the legal status of volunteers," said Mike Locke, director of public affairs at Volunteering England. "We feel we can structure the debate," he added.

Volunteering England is expected to issue a statement setting out the full scope of the inquiry on 18 November.

Locke said the charity was putting together the terms of reference and the membership of the group that would lead the inquiry. It is believed that several charities with large numbers of volunteers and volunteer representative groups have been invited to take part.

Patrick Daniels, a director at the Association of Volunteer Managers, said he would welcome any clarification of the legal status of volunteers. But he warned that the crucial issue would be enforcing whatever rights were granted.

"We hope that any inquiry into the rights of volunteers looks at how these rights can be both enforced by the relevant authorities and encouraged through better volunteer management," he said.

Is Szoneberg, director of full-time volunteering at CSV, warned that the inquiry should not create more red tape by focusing too narrowly on legal status. She said this could create "barriers to people giving their time".

She said it was vital that volunteers were treated fairly, but that legal status "should not govern the extent of volunteers' roles and responsibilities like it does with employees".

Udeni Salmon, head of volunteering support at Leonard Cheshire Disability, which has 3,000 volunteers, said: "Under the law, volunteers are not protected in the same way as our salaried staff regarding gender, ethnic and religious discrimination."

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carl allen, 3 November 2009, 10:28

Volunteer treatment would likley focus on the volunteer as a person and the volunteer as a one-off donor or an investor.

To put it another way, what does the volunteer think after he leaves the organisation?

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Lettie Fortune, 17 November 2009, 15:35

I am glad to hear that volunteering England is finally taking an interest in volunteer rights. I was a volunteer with Lincoln CAB for nearly 6 years and I was instantly dismissed, by the chair, Mr Tom James, after I made a written complaint about unacceptable and highly inappropriate behaviour by the Manager of Lincoln CAB, Mr Roy Trotter. Mr James accused me of libel and defamation without investigating the matter first. The MP for Lincoln contacted NACAB on my behalf. They were not interested initially in my complaint. Indeed, their Advice Policy Officer, Ms Saffron Follows, writing to the MP on behalf of NACAB, misrepresented the reasons for my dismissal stating that it was due to my performance and in no way related to my letter / allegations. There was eventually an investigation into my dismissal by Professor Chiddick of Lincoln University which proved otherwise and that the dismissal was 'inappropriate'. (Third Sector reported the findings). However, evidence emerged in the investigation that not only did Ms Follows misrepresent the reasons for the dismissal she also enclosed a private note to the MP containing information about me not related to the case. (Third Sector did not report this but have copies of the evidence) Therefore it is quite clear to me that NACAB had absolutely no intention of taking my complaint seriously in the beginning and indeed tried to damage my reputation instead to the Lincoln MP). Indeed, NACAB only had a change of mind after Third Sector highlighted my case and it was obvious that they were embarrassed by yet further negative media coverage of the organisation. (There had been other cases before mine of mistreatment of volunteer staff) NACAB have now appointed a person to deal with volunteer complaints, Ms Julia Dennis and I have no reason to doubt her personally. I had dealings with her and found her to be very honest and straight forward. However, she is unlikely to remain in the post forever. Therefore volunteer workers need some kind of protection when things go wrong through no fault of their own. Incidentally, all of the above comments can be substantiated by written evidence (Third Sector has copies of everything) just in case anybody else tries to accuse me of libel and defamation.