New job wants me to volunteer on my days off

[SilverNewMoon]

Where do I stand on this? I work 5 days, 45 hours over the week. They want me to regularly work the two days off with no recompense, no overtime payment or days off in lieu. It's a place mainly run by volunteers so I feel pressured. Any advice?

How on earth could you be expected to work 7 long days a week with no time off? I would last about 5 minutes - in fact scrap that - I wouldn't even contemplate agreeing to that.

If I were you OP I'd walk away from the job. They are CFs!

I've worked for a charity, and if as staff we attending any event (fundraising, etc) we would get it as TOIL.

Also, if the directors are receiving any money, outside of reasonable expenses, they aren't volunteers.

How long have you been in the role?
Is there an employee handbook? What about your employment contract? Does it detail any expectation of volunteering or unpaid work?
If not, then they don't have a leg to stand on, and you're entitled to either work your normal paid hours, or to attend the additional activities but with TOIL. Unfortunately, if this is the prevailing culture you may have to look for a new job if you can't or don't want to have to deal with being the one who doesn't volunteer.

Are the directors also the shareholders of the company? They may not be paying themselves a wage but they are not volunteers - they are the owners!

If you are an employee then they have to follow employment law.

If they ask you to volunteer ask them for a stake in the company!

Obviously they are taking the piss, but the easiest route might to just be invent a ready made reason why not - you volunteer all weekend, you go wild camping from Friday nights, you are helping your neighbour decorate on and on.

"I don't want to" is perfectly valid, but they are Cfs who don't think so.

You may like to mention the Working Time Regulations in passing, they seem to think you can opt out of rest breaks requirements which you can’t legally do.

What does your contract say? I assume you have one in writing. In fact an oral contract is still a contract even if the person has left.
They would need to prove it wasn’t said and you have stuck to the contract.

You have accepted the contract by turning up to work and getting paid. You have worked 5 days a week and anything above that is a variation to the contract and must be negotiated. You shouldn’t agree to volunteer for a company when you are in a paid role. Well not days anyway. A few hours here and there might be ok. Just to help out.

Stick to your contract and say you cannot “work” for more than 5 days a week. They must ask you to agree to extra work and pay you or give you TOIL. Hope it works out for you.

It’s not a charity but it uses volunteers? Sounds a bit fishy to me

Push it back on them. Make them accountable.

"Are you suggesting I work for free on my days off?"

"If I volunteer on my days off are you providing me with additional paid days off in the week?"

The answers to the above should give you all the info you need to know