Are charity volunteers classed as employees?

[MrsExpo]

Just that really.

I volunteer for a large charity and a situation has arisen where it seems that they consider the time I spend working voluntarily for them as “employment” and therefore have certain rights over me and the work that I do.

I give my time freely, have no contract or other employee benefits or protections and could walk away (or be sacked!) at any time without notice. Thanks for any thoughts.

NCVO info here

more info and from Unison

I suppose it depends a lot on what you do and how regularly you do it. There are SO many different volunteer situations.

Is it a very small charity? In my experience, they are not nearly as good at any of the legal stuff as the bigger ones.

Are you volunteering in a specific role? Extreme example...Hospice l worked at had ward volunteers who take the newspaper trolley to patients, if they wanted to start doing IVs etc they wouldn't be allowed. Is the work you are doing something they want/need doing?

If they are regarding you as employed, try asking them what your pension and sickness rights are?

Is it a very small charity?

It literally says in the second sentence that it is a large charity.

What’s the actual issue here? It’s reasonable for a charity to expect volunteers to follow a particular way of working while they’re representing the charity.

Yes it is entirely reasonable to expect volunteers to behave in a certain way. I volunteer for a large charity too, and there are all sorts of policies about what I say, how I treat other volunteers, what I'm permitted to do and not permitted to do.

But in terms of "employment" rules, they can't penalise me for not turning up, can't tell me what shifts I must do, tell me when I can take holiday.... I'm a volunteer!

What rights are we talking about here?

It is not employment in the sense that you gain employment rights. However, the organisation for which you volunteer is entitled to decide what you do, when you do it and how you do it. If you don't conform they can refuse your offer to volunteer. So in that respect it is similar to unpaid employment.

Thanks for the replies and links, which I will read in detail shorty.

A bit more detail (didn't want to drip feed ...) This is a very large, national organisation and I volunteer for a local section of it. As part of my work, I was asked to take some photographs to use on the local social media in support of a fund raising event. I took the pictures (using my own camera and in my own time), handed them over and they were used for the purpose stated. I have no problems with that at all.

I have now been asked to sign a form assigning copyright of "all images I take as part of my work or volunteering with " to the charity allowing them to do with them as they wish, including using them for other purposes or selling them on to third parties for profit.

I don't want this this get into a debate about copyright law if possible, but I'm querying their right to demand any such assignment.

Effectively, i have produced a product which I have passed on to them for their use for a specific purpose. It was used for that purpose. If I was a paid employee taking the pictures as part of my employment, then fine, but I feel this is a different case, so I guess what I'm trying to get to is whether I am an employee in that sense and thus subject to the constraints of being employed, or whether I am a freelancer with no such constraints.

I should add that the images have no commercial value for me, but I may wish to use them for other purposes in the future, such as exhibiting them in photography exhibitions - which I would not be able to do if I do not own the copyright. I hope that makes sense?!

www.vcnw.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Copyright-and-volunteers.pdf
Think this might help.

I would decline the request to assign copyright and state that you understand that they may not wish to deploy you in the role of volunteer photographer again.

You are however happy (if indeed you are) to licence (some/all of) the photographs supplied to date so the charityncan continue to use those permanently

If the photos contain images of people, would the charity not need permission from the people in the photos to use them commercially or anywhere for publicity? I would wonder why they want the copyright? Charge for it and retain the right to enter the photos for a competition.

@BubblesBuddy ... yes, they would and the charity (quite rightly) has a pretty bullet proof Model Release process for dealing with this. Some of the images were of other volunteers who happily sign up to the model release process. None of the images were of people not associated with the charity in some way (ie members of the public). This is a somewhat different issue from the copyright of the images themselves, but it's an interesting point.

The attached might help.

I am a trustee of a local charity with quite a large number of volunteers and a few employees to oversee their training and workload. Just as the staff have contracts of employment and a staff handbook, we ask volunteers to sign a volunteer agreement in which charity and volunteer agree to the processes and controls set out in their handbook.

I am surprised that a large charity wouldn't have something like this. It really does help solve a lot of issues when a volunteer has a difference of opinion.

Presumably they have asked for a release form to be signed for these photos because, although individuals might have signed a 'release form' with your charity, they haven't done so with MrsExpo.
Can't you just have a conversation with your volunteer manager/direct supervisor and come to an agreement?

Thinking again, you might be better off asking about this on one of the popular photography magazine forums.