[WiLT] Minimum wage rules for volunteers maintained

[WiL Admin]

Minimum wage rules for volunteers maintained

The Government has decided not to change the application of minimum
wage rules to voluntary workers, despite complaints from charities
that the law could prevent them offering incentives to volunteers.

Under current law, volunteers who receive benefits - such as
allowances or training that does not relate directly to their
voluntary work - could argue that they are entitled to the minimum
wage.

A Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
consultation document published earlier this year suggested that youth
volunteering charities v and ProjectScotland could be exempted.
However, some charities, including WRVS, complained that this might
disadvantage older volunteers and emphasised the need for a level
playing field (Third Sector, 22 August).

After analysing the consultation results, the DBERR has decided that
the current law is sufficiently clear and extra sections would "risk
making it more, not less, problematic to resolve any disputes that
might arise about employment status".

Its response reads:

  "Training provision beyond the needs of the volunteering
opportunity, or reimbursement of childcare expenses, represent a
significant benefit in kind and as such would change the nature of the
relationship between voluntary worker and qualifying organisation."

Youth projects could be exempted

However, it said that the department would produce updated guidelines
next year, and added that the department was still open to the
possibility of an exemption for projects relating to the national
framework for youth volunteering.

The exemption would allow charities to offer inducements to under-25s
to volunteer full time without opening up the possibility that such
voluntary workers could claim to be entitled to the minimum wage.

It said there "may be a good case" for an exemption for full-time
volunteering placements arising from the Russell Commission report,
provided that it was "carefully drawn to avoid the scope for
exploitation or substitution of workers for volunteers". It says the
Office of the Third Sector and related devolved administrations would
continue to develop recommendations.

Terry Ryall, chief executive of v, welcomed the implication that the
exemption would apply to all organisations contributing towards the
Russell Commission objectives on youth volunteering.

  "V is happy to see that the Government is developing an inclusive
approach to any future exemption from the national minimum wage that
would judge opportunities for volunteers by their content, rather than
by their source of funding," she said.

Other concerns

A spokeswoman for charity lawyers Bates Wells & Braithwaite, which was
also among the 40 contributors to the consultation, said the
Government had missed an opportunity to address a number of other
points of practical concern about voluntary workers.

She said another example was the wording of the law that permits
charities to provide accommodation to voluntary workers but forbids
them from providing money to arrange their own accommodation.

  "I hope the new guidelines will clarify and how widely
'out-of-pocket expenses' can be defined, and whether a charity can
provide both subsistence and accommodation to voluntary workers," she
said.

Source
http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/News/DailyBulletin/770609/Minimum-wage-rules-volunteers-maintained/D2E9570D459E9386900C67F06FF09001/

Posted on WiLT blog at
http://www.freecharity.org.uk/~womeninlondon/?p=471