My 16 yo has taken a job that has turned out to voluntary!

But he wasn’t hired as a coach. He was taken on as a pool side helper with a view to do his coaching qualifications. I think @Lemurlady means that whilst your son was at the swim club there would likely have been pool side helpers who were volunteers who’s help he has benefited from.

I 100% agree it should have been clear this was a non paid role and I don’t agree with the “we will pay you after 6 months if you’re good enough” - it should be a set time and then you get paid unless you fail your probation. However there has also been an oversight on your/ your sons part in taking a job without a contract, not asking explicitly what the hourly rate was and waiting until he’d worked a month (albeit only 10 hrs) to discuss this. Like others say, chalk it up to experience.

What is your son’s future goals ? If he wants to go into coaching and will get a qualification then it may well be worth sticking at it unless there’s other places that will give him a paid job to do similar. For university applications or any future job a DBS, safeguarding qualification and at least 6 months work experience will be invaluable and more than most 16 year olds will have access to. I’m not saying it’s right but for those saying quit and walk out right now without anything else to go to, I think it’s worth looking at the non monetary value of this “job”

This is a very good idea.

Job advertisements should, legally, make clear using the word voluntary that they are unpaid.

I hope OP gets some answers from ACAS.

Is he being given any benefit through his volunteering work (eg: free swims )
If so he's entitled to minimum wage pay.

There's a page on the HMRC which I will dig out shortly

https://www.gov.uk/volunteering/pay-and-expenses

https://sheffieldvolunteercentre.org.uk/uploads/files/Paying_volunteer_expenses_legal_pitfalls_and_examples_Final.pdf

I’m shocked they made him pay for his own DBS, never experienced this in any role voluntary or otherwise. They also clearly haven’t been transparent. I’d stop bothering if I were him.

Yes, I appreciate that, but he's not coaching, and there are many hours of volunteer work that he's benefited from as a member.

Volunteer roles that require a DBS check and safeguarding should be very carefully overseen, especially if some of these people are only 16 and probably in a prime position to be safeguarded themselves, as well as under-16s who would be on the end of any safeguarding and volunteer policies that are key to the training of those leaders/ lifeguards/ coaches. An example to consider is that the person should not have started their role until the DBS check results came back as satisfactory, and that can take quite a while. A lot of sports clubs seem to resent all of this area but it leaves a bad taste for me.
Being vague about what's paid and not, and the 6 month 'free work' deal (when most other things, if they're paid, have a maximum 3 month probation, because sick pay, pension, etc is bound up with that 3 month norm and beyond), does not inspire confidence that practices are following current good/best practice here.

Parent of a DC in a similar arrangement here - but sounds like your DC's sports club is being at the very least untransparent and at worst exploitative, so here is the comparison.

It's not from swimming it's a different sport but the other principles - of it being a community sports club run by volunteers - are the same.

My DC is in a 3 month voluntary period, working one session of about one hour in length per week. During that period the club (a) sees how they perform - are they reliable in showing up, do they take it seriously, can they actually do the job? and at the end of the period applies for their DBS check and a required membership to a sports body. The club pays for the DBS check and the membership. So the "deal" is - the DC shows up and works voluntarily at one session per week for 3 months, they club pays for the DBS and membership. If the DC looks like the right material, then after that the DC will be offered a paid job at an hourly rate. This was made 100% clear from the start. I don't think there is any guarantee of a paid job but I know the sports club does predict what pipeline of helpers it will need and take on only as many volunteers as needed.

It sounds like your DC is doing twice as much work for twice as long with less transparency.

My experience of community sports clubs is that they fulfil a great function but can sometimes get quite captured by poor behaviour and unfair practices by the leaders if there is not decent governance of this. I have a good level of confidence in the leadership of the sports club in the example above but a much lower level of confidence in the leadership at another one my DC is involved in and for this reason have deliberately avoided them getting involved in the similar scheme at that club.

No way would I be working for free while other people are getting paid!

It's not unusual for unpaid voluntary work to be part of a qualification requirement. If he is getting experience in the industry he intends to work in once he's qualified then surely there is a clear benefit to him continuing with this work. It's not a full time position so he could also get another role which does pay for income.

@pikkumyy77
the club doesn’t really get free labour. The volunteer is extra and isn’t counted in the ratios of Level 1/Level 2 coaches and lifeguards. So it’s not like they replace a paid worker for a volunteer. You have to show that you have experience/ are training on the job when going for a coaching qualification.

Not if he leaves as soon as finding out it's unpaid.

I'm going to take a different view. Obviously it should be clear at the outset, but isn't all amateur sport run by volunteers and as DS has benefited from the work of volunteers himself, it would be good to give a few hours back. Possibly the club believe it's widely known this work is done by volunteers and that's what it wasn't explicit?

It would be entirely different if this was a commercial entity, but it's not.

Obviously free labour? Of course there is a benefit. They get sufficient labour for six months then dump and repeat.

Is he getting a coaching qualification out of it?
That might be worth something and he could take that elsewhere and get a lot more than £8 an hour.
Otherwise, any lifeguard training courses around? You can do that in a week and lifeguards usually get £11-12 an hour.

He’s 16 and can legally work as a lifeguard and many areas are desperate for lifeguards so he should be able to get paid work. I’d chalk it up to experience and get him clued up on work contracts etc and use the club as a reference (so don’t fall out with them). He could also look for work as a buddy to a disabled child I’ve tried and failed to find someone to take my autistic young adult son swimming / to gym while I did a class despite being able pay £13 hour using social care funding. He could advertise on local Sen parent groups if he’s confident buddying those with additional needs. For future reference if he decided to coach there is a huge untapped market in teaching kids with Sen to swim. I’ve sat on waiting lists and never reached the top once teachers know my son is autistic.

Absolutely report them.
Disgusting, exploitive behaviour.
Of course they know bloody well they should have made the VOLUNTEER nature of the post 100% clear.
I would be absolutely furious.
I hate the way some businesses and organisations think they can use and take advantage of teens.
No way would I let that go.

It may not be the club's fault that he misunderstood if he 'reached out to them' asking for experience as a pool helper.

2.5 hours voluntary work a week is great experience for a 16 year old but, as pp have said, it needs to be made absolutely clear at the beginning. I would have thought he would have been issued with written/online guidelines as his role ‘as a volunteer.’ Informal arrangements like this shouldn’t happen as the club have a responsibility to both workers and volunteers to protect them but also the organisation. They are leaving themselves open to all sorts.

It is easier to get a job from a job. His DBS and safety training (including the fact that he was prepared to pay for them) will stand to him.

If he starts looking for a new job now, while keeping up with what he's doing, thereby demonstrating he has all those skills (punctuality, working with colleagues, being agreeable and trustworthy), he'll get something that is paid, and that can in turn get him what he actually wants. Well done him for taking on work.

How cheeky. I guess he can quit

It’s what most swim/ sports clubs do though they should’ve been upfront about it. My niece was a swimmer, came through a club and when she showed interested in doing her coaching (she was 15) she had to do 40 hours volunteering and then the club paid for her level 1.

6 months is a bit long to be unpaid! I can understand a month but not 6 months! Bless him, feel sorry for him.

They are taking the massive piss.

What's the betting they will dismiss ds once the 6 months are up! Then rinse and repeat with the next so called 'volunteer'.

Sounds like what most sports clubs do. Certainly the gymnastics and dance clubs my children attend have unpaid teenagers helping to instruct. It may have been a misunderstanding or they may have been dishonest.