Volunteers



Genuine volunteers are not employees or workers, because there is no mutuality of obligation (see page 37). In other words, there is no legal obligation on the volunteer to do work or on the employer to pay for it. A legal contract requires “consideration” — something paid in return for something else. In an employment context, this is usually work in return for wages. The fact that volunteer staff look and act just like their co-workers, for example, in relation to their skill or experience, the hours they usually work or the tasks they carry out, will not turn them into employees or workers, if they are offering their services on a genuinely voluntary basis. 



Voluntary workers are specifically excluded from the National Minimum Wage Regulations (see Chapter 4) and are not covered by the employment provisions of the Equality Act 2010 (X (Appellant) v Mid Sussex Citizens Advice Bureau [2012] UKSC 59). See Chapter 7: Discrimination — Volunteers.