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

[Lemurlady]

My 16 yo DS has taken what he thought was a paid job at our local swimming club as a poolside helper with a view to doing his coaching qualifications. He had to do his DBS and a 3 hour safeguarding course in his own time. He has done his first month (2.5hours/week) and asked when he was getting paid. He has been told it’s voluntary for 6 months and after that they will decide whether to take him on at £8/hour. It was never mentioned in any of the email correspondence that it was unpaid. He did not sign a contract and got the gig because he used to swim at the club and reached out to them. AIBU to expect him to be paid for the hours he has done and in thinking this is very exploitative as it would seem the only way into coaching is to work for free for 6 months. Is it even legal?

In our swim club, the head coach gets paid (and it is a full time job as about two thirds is admin) but all other coaches are voluntary although they do get money off either their or their kids memberships. Also the club pays for their coaching or teaching qualifications in exchange for their time. I am a committee member and know that the club only breaks even or at a push makes a few hundred profit per year. There are lots of teenagers who are poolside helpers for their d of e volunteering.

If you think the club have been underhand you could contact Swim England who the club will be affiliated to.

If your son will let you I would go through all their communication and see if there was anywhere that it seemed like this could be a paid job. If some of the other poolside helpers are paid then it does muddy the waters and I can see why he would also think he would be paid - but as you say they’ve been there for longer and probably have done their 6 months volunteering before payments. I suspect this is the only way it could be taken further if there was an intention to mislead, however there is someone on the thread with a background of employment law so they might offer other advice.

It sounds like your son is doing a great job with becoming a well rounded individual as well as good experience for CV - well done

If he only needed the job for money and has plenty of other experience then agree that he may as well find another job hopefully coaching swimming, if he can get one before his A levels start. You could point out that there was no evidence of it being a voluntary role and that’s why he’s had to leave and He can still use it as a reference

They are taking advantage of him. The fact that they didn’t mention it to him directly indicates a shady practice

Oh and my children did volunteer in an unpaid role at our tennis club to help out, it was not towards a coaching qualification, just helping out a coach they loved.
Lots of children have done it over the years.
It was crystal clear it was a volunteering role for 3 months with under 10's and they actually enjoyed it.
They knew what it was about, signed up, and were happy to do it.
No confusion whatsoever.
Very poor to mislead.

The utter cheeky fuckers

I think they are taking the piss. Maybe a couple of sessions unpaid but 6 months? That's unrealistic and very unfair.

First of all you should be really proud of him for finding and signing up to this - he sounds like he's got a great work ethic.

Perhaps he misunderstood, perhaps they could/should have been clearer. But six months is a long time for them to decide he has the right stuff - I suspect they would know within six weeks. I would go and have a chat with the head coach and clarify everything, including what they will pay him once the six months is up. I'd want to see their written policy on this so you can assess whether it's real or just some scammy behaviour.

Can you afford to give him some cash to recognise his effort in the voluntary period?

They paid for his DBS

Total exploitation and sadly it’s happening more often these days. I know of a local cafe that recruits teenagers for trial shift weekends , then ghosts them. They NEVER have the same staff on a weekend as they just have a stream of free trial shift kids, one after another. No one has a contract, nobody is given a job .

You can't do the Swim England coaching qualification until you are 18 so he's not going to be a qualified coach until then and this club (like many) are taking the piss.
If he wants to make some money and swimming is his thing, I'd recommend he considers lifeguarding or swimming teaching as these can be done at 16 and pay well (I'm in the SE and lifeguards are c.£15ph teachers £18-22ph). Our local leisure centre run courses for both a couple of times a year and if you commit to 5+ hours a week (paid) for 6 months you get the course free. Not sure where you are but happy to give you details

And you don't pay for a DBS if the role is voluntary (it specifically asks on the application) so don't let them fool you into thinking they've been investing in your DS

Our swimming club has some older swimmers who volunteer as poolside helpers and if they are interested/show aptitiude are supported and to do coaching training and qualifications (paid for by the club) and progress to paid roles as and when these become available.
Lifeguard roles have been mentioned a few times - qualifications are essential for these roles and are self funded, not something you can just walk into.

So a 16 year old 'reached out' to a former swimming club and has been offered a volunteer role rather than the paid job they imagined. This sounds like a misunderstanding based on different expectations rather than exploitation to me.

This depends on the club set up, my ds swims for two clubs and one the coaches get paid and the other is all volunteers.

He'd probably have a good employment tribunal claim for unpaid wages, although it may not be worth bringing for just a few hours' pay. A contract doesn't have to be in writing.

Our local swimming club has a handful of paid coaches but most of the squad coaches are volunteers as are the myriad of other roles needed to run an effective swim club. The club runs a programme of unpaid poolside helpers for swimmers - it’s great experience, can be used on CVs, DoE, Uni applications and the club will fund training courses. I think he was naive to think this would be paid without a contract of employment. Many kids at swimming club (mine included) did a lifeguarding course once they were 16 and were then employed by the leisure centre on a zero hours contract - it paid more than minimum wage.

This sounds pretty standard for a swimming club in our area. My DD volunteered for hers from age 14 until she went to uni, in return they paid for her life guarding and coaching qualifications when she reached 16. She really did it because she wanted to give something back to the club she had been in since the age of 5 though, and because it is an excellent addition to her CV.

Did they just assume that he would know it was voluntary? We didn’t ask when dd started at hers because we wouldn’t have imagined she’d be paid.

Could you pay for him to do his lifeguarding qualification?

I have no doubt that these situations regularly happen, but voluntary for 6 MONTHS is taking the piss.

Correct - he’s done work for them, a verbal contract + work done = a legally binding contract.

Honestly I'd advise him to cut his losses and leave and find somewhere else. My husband took a voluntary job a long time initially with a trial period of 1 month, this soon turned to 3 months and then 6 months and then it was "sorry theres no job here but if you relocate to Northern Ireland there's a job there" and that's when my husband cut his losses and got a different job. There won't be a job at end of it for him they're just looking for free labour.

In terms of a DBS certificate being transferable for another position - usually it would not be, if sponsored by the voluntary organisation for a particular role that's for them. (Just so that he is prepared to say he has gone through this and had a clear result, if needing to repeat for a different role with someone else).

It is possible to register for the update service as the holder of a valid certificate, which would make it transferable in many cases, for similar roles, and you pay a small amount for this each year. That said, it depends whether this means it could only transfer for other volunteer roles, not employment (as this is how it's been applied for); and it could depends on the policies of his new organisation as they could stipulate their people have a DBS check sponsored by them, matched to their own role.

Lots of 16 year olds are doing voluntary work as part of the Duke of Edinburgh Scheme - or just for the experience, so I don't find this odd particularly with the role Pool Side Helper. The DBS and safeguarding is taken by all volunteers dealing with children, so again not strange. I would just back out quietly on the grounds of a misunderstanding.

I think what muddies the water in this situation are some are paid and some are not. It’s either a voluntary role or it’s not. Seems odd if 2 people are sling the exact same role that some get paid and some don’t.

As Iron Maiden once said (or, sang) "Run to the hills! Run for your life!"

This is their way of getting free labour out of young people, "promising" them a paying job by the end of it, only to fob them off and hire new free labour at the end of the 6 months

@PinkFrogss I’m just trying to work out in legal terms what can be done. Surely what you @MooseFlower says isn’t the case otherwise people who volunteer regularly could say they’ve done work and then therefore claim to be paid for it. But there would be clearly stated that it was voluntary - this is what is missing here - any clear communication.

Perhaps I’m giving this swimming club too much credit but these are the facts from the OP.

.Her son used to swim at the club but they could no longer meet his needs so he left
.The club used to have an arrangement where there were unpaid volunteers as part of D of E programme some of whom later were paid (perhaps after they had been there for a 6 month period of time - although this is just an assumption and I could be wrong)
. Her son reaches out to the club he has previously worked at to ask to be a pool side assistant with a view to getting his coaching qualification
.The club agree . Not clear what the agreement is although there is no contract, OP has not mentioned them ever mentioning pay, bank details etc and son only asked about pay after 1 month of 2.5hr / week sessions.
. On questioning swim team report misunderstanding and it is a 6 month voluntary post after which he may be paid if they keep him on.
. They have paid for the DBS

To me, they have offered OPs son the same deal they give the D of E Students, I doubt they have said anywhere this is paid work but equally haven’t been expressly clear that it is voluntary.

How unclear they have been we won’t know unless we see documentation between them. I don’t think this is an attempt at malicious exploitation of a 16 year old but poor communication from frankly both sides.

I don’t think it’s a case of “they gave a verbal agreement and work has been done so it’s legally binding” as we don’t know what the verbal or written agreements were. It is unfortunate and a shame for the young adult. And the swim club need to sort themselves out so they don’t get themselves into situations like this again but I don’t think taking all things into account that this is an attempt at exploiting this boy

Standard approach.