Volunteers and employment rights

Volunteers give time, carrying out activities that aim to benefit their community or society. Volunteers are unpaid and choose how they wish to give their time.

Volunteering takes place in every sector, from charities and not for profits to the public and private sectors. Volunteers can take part in a range of activities, including:

• campaigning
• fundraising
• mentoring
• befriending
• running events/clubs
• trusteeship.

There’s no legal definition of a ‘volunteer’, but ‘trustees’ do have legal obligations to the charities they govern. To find out more, read our guidance on trustees and their roles.

Volunteers have fewer rights and less legal protection than paid staff, because relevant legislation – such as the Equality Act 2010 and the Employment Rights Act 1996 – does not apply to volunteers. However, there have been some rare cases where volunteers successfully claimed such rights by showing that they had an employment relationship with their organisation from a legal point of view.

Volunteers should, of course, be treated fairly and with respect. An organisation that treats volunteers badly will struggle to keep volunteers and face negative publicity. Volunteer-involving organisations should keep up to date with volunteering good practice.

To make sure you use the right structures and approach:

• read our other help and guidance pages on involving volunteers
• get support from your local volunteer centre.

The Equality Act 2010 combined previous anti-discrimination legislation into one act of parliament. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) says it ‘provides Britain with a discrimination law which protects individuals from unfair treatment and promotes a fair and more equal society’.

The act protects people from discrimination on specified grounds (called 'protected characteristics') in employment and when using goods and services. However, volunteers generally don’t fall into either of these categories. They’re not included in the definition of employment in the Equality Act 2010:

See our guidance on volunteers and employment status for more on the definition of employment and the rare cases where volunteers can be seen as employees.

The possibility that volunteering could be seen as akin to receipt of a service provision has been raised from time to time. Legal opinion is that such a claim is highly unlikely to be successful.  

When does the Equality Act 2010 apply to volunteers?

Organisations may be responsible for their volunteers’ discriminatory actions under the Equality Act 2010. Although volunteers are not employees, the organisation has asked them to act on its behalf.

EHRC guidance says:

Organisations won’t necessarily be liable if a volunteer has ignored training or guidance, but the organisation should notice and take action to rectify mistakes or problems as soon as possible or they may become party to the discrimination.

An organisation may be liable if a volunteer harasses an employee.  Employers must take reasonable steps to stop employees being harassed. Organisations must make sure that volunteers know about equality issues, understand the responsibilities they have, and do not discriminate towards service users or harass employees.

Tips for making sure volunteers know about equality issues

• Include volunteers in your equal opportunities policy (to an appropriate extent, for instance making it clear that any cross-references to employee policies such as the disciplinary policy will not apply).
• Have clearly defined role descriptions that set out the boundaries of volunteers' roles and responsibilities.
• Discuss equality issues with volunteers in their inductions. Make sure they understand the organisation's commitments and responsibilities, and know how to meet them.
• Have clearly defined role descriptions that set out the boundaries of volunteers' roles and responsibilities.
• If volunteers will be working with beneficiaries or service users, give adequate training on equality issues in the context of their work.
• Make sure there is enough supervision, communication and monitoring to keep an eye on day-to-day behaviour, and take action if issues arise.
• Give each volunteer a named supervisor to go to with questions or concerns, so that they never have to work beyond their role or training.
• Make sure service users and volunteers have clear ways to raise complaints or concerns, so that mistakes can be swiftly put right.
• Regularly revisit equality, diversity and inclusion and provide refresher training at appropriate intervals.

Although volunteers don’t have the same rights as employees, they may have some rights if they have an emotionally harmful or threatening experience.

Here are two theoretical examples of this. However, we’re not aware of any incidents in which either example has happened.

Health and safety

If poor treatment of a volunteer has caused demonstrable emotional harm, and the organisation broke its duty of care or duties under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, it could be treated as a health and safety issue.

To be liable, the organisation would need to have failed to take reasonable steps to keep the volunteer safe.

In general, harm has to be foreseeable – for example, if the organisation knew or should have known that the volunteer was being exposed to risks to their mental health. Such cases are very hard to prove.

Harassment

A volunteer could use the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. This law was introduced to stop stalking, but it has been used by employees in cases of harassment in the workplace.

A ‘course of conduct which amounts to harassment of another’ – which means alarm, anxiety or distress is caused at least twice – is a criminal offence under the Act. In the case of Majrowski v Guy's and St Thomas's NHS Trust, the House of Lords found that the employer was ‘vicariously liable’ for the behaviour of a bullying line manager.

It’s hard to know when behaviour counts as harassment, but the Court of Appeal did note in a later case that it must be of a serious nature, where ‘the conduct is of such gravity as to justify the sanctions of the criminal law’ (Conn v Council of the City of Sunderland).

This law is not limited to employees, so it could be applied by volunteers.