Volunteers

Genuine volunteers are not employees or workers because there is no mutuality of obligation (see page 33). 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. It makes no difference that a volunteer looks and acts in all other respects like their directly employed colleagues. If they are not legally obliged to work, they cannot be workers or employees.

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 6: Discrimination — Volunteers, page 153.