to think my 21yo niece shouldn't be out of pocket for working at Olympics?

[piellabakewell]

She is at uni in south wales and lives there permanently now. She has volunteered to work at the Olympics because it will be a great opportunity to put her skills into practice (it's related to her degree, she graduates this year) and will look good on her CV. She has been assigned to the Aquatic Centre for 3 weeks. The Aquatic Centre is in London. She lives in Wales. She will have an allowance of £100 a week from which she has to pay for food, travel and lodging. Three of her friends are also working at the Olympics, but two of them have been assigned to Cardiff, which is very close to home. They all get the same allowance of £100 a week.

It's impossible to manage on £100 a week and she doesn't know anyone who lives near the site that she can stay with. She has asked to stay at my place, which is fine, although it will take her about 1.5 hours each way.

She is tempted to say that she cannot help after all, and who can blame her.

I think paying people a wage would be a great financial stimulus for the UK economy :)

We live in london and DH is a games maker - he only gets a travel card and free lunch - well apart from that rather snazzy uniform ..... but they also get an awful lot of limited edition freebies, which will undoubtedly end up on ebay

HarrietSchulenberg Just guessing, but I think LOCOG might have one or two lawyers at their disposal :) I don't believe that a volunteer contract, a very clear volunteer arrangement that has been part of a volunteering programme that has run for 30+ years, could be construed as employment contract by anyone just because their expenses are per diem.

I think the admin involved in processing actual expenses for 70,000 volunteers would be untenable given that the company (LOCOG is a limited company, not a charity) will have very limited staff when the games end and will be winding it down asap.

DS has applied to be a volunteer - he had his orientation training on Saturday, and has two further training sessions to attend, as well as the time he spends at the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

I wasn't aware of any £100 payment - although I understood they got free travel to their venue.

Personally I think that he is really lucky to have been selected - DH has heard nothing . It will cost him, as he won't be able to find paid work during this period, although fortunately he can stay with DD for the duration of the Games.

But to his mind (and ours) it's a sacrifice worth making to be part of this event. The fact that it looks good on your CV also helps!

Has she only just clicked that London is a long way from Wales????

I didn't expect to get paid for voluntary work or work experience when I was at Uni.

I do think people should get paid full stop, BUT the sports world is one that is run on unpaid workers (F1 marshalls etc., ) unless you're actually a sportsperson then you get paid ridiculus amounts.

One of the reasons I don't much like sport. Gentlemanly, competitive, fair? Balls.

I live near where your niece lives.
I have just turned down a decently paid job at the Olympics, partly because the travel costs would have been prohibitive. The job was 6 months full time but I was hoping to do the first part of it from home.
This was not possible and I accept that. I choose to live 3 hours from London in a lovely rural place, I can't expect them to foot my transport costs.

You apply for a job which is realistically possible for you to do, and you should not expect your employers to ship you in from the furthest backwaters at their expense.

The Olympics are a total rip-off.

Smug Sebastian is getting £250,000 pa plus expenses for a three day week. He's asking 70,000 people to give up their time for nothing.

Bollocks to that!

Obviously a lot of people don't agree with you Dreaming - as there have been 150,000 applications for the volunteers. No-one's being forced to do it.

I think you'll find Seb's working a 7 day week - whether that's worth £250,000 is a matter of opinion.

Thats what she signed up for, too late to be whining about it now. Friends of mine have worked a full year without pay in a certain industry, internship is worth it.

Suck it up or let someone else have the spot.

ajandjjmum

The fact that a lot of people are doing something doesn't make it right. If they had agreed to pay the volunteers £1,000 each that would have cost £70 million or just over 0.5% of the total Olympic budget.

Seb's contract is for 3 days a week. If he's working more than that now as opening day looms it's up to him. I wonder where he'll be in a few years time when his legacy promises with regards to increased participation fail to materialise - not surprising really as the budget for sports development is £0.

But they're volunteers not employees. Seems a bit odd on one hand complaining about the Olympics being a rip off, and then on the other, saying that people who are volunteering should be paid.

There are 150,000 applications for 70,000 positions - many people clearly don't agree with you. But we're all entitled to our opinion.

But she knows that she lives a long way from the event. Why on earth would she think that someone will magically cover all of her transport?

It was made pretty clear during the application process that it's free transport within London and any other costs are to be paid by the Gamesmaker - it's unfortunate that she didn't get offered events in Cardiff but why on earth did she accept a role in London without realising she would have to cover her own costs?

To be honest she's lucky she's got a firm offer already - there are plenty of people who will need to arrange time off work etc still waiting to hear what they'll be doing. It's a shame she might miss out but you can't really expect the Olympics to pick up travel costs of all volunteers, it would add millions to the cost.

Not sure what she's doing for her degree but there are lots and lots of opportunities available in sport for volunteers all year round and across the country - I can't think of any club/organisation which would turn down the offer of help so perhaps she should look closer to home?