1. Staff and Volunteers –
Managing the Tension
JOANNE O’BRIEN
CRH Law
Level 10, 193 North Quay
Brisbane Qld 4000
P: 07 3236 2900
E:jobrien@crhlaw.com.au

2. Workshop Schedule
• Background to the issues
• Scenarios for discussion
• Develop a Charter of Relationship for
Staff & Volunteers

5. What’s Happening?
• Challenges facing ‘Civil Society’
– Declining government funding & competitive
purchasing of services
– Increasing costs of regulatory compliance
– GFC & negative impacts on fundraising
– Increase in demand for services during
economic downturn
– Shortage of skilled staff in the sector
• Deloitte Survey into the Not for Profit Sector 2012

6. The Effect
• Confidence levels are negative for NFP
organisations
• Those with funding under $250K are least
confident
• Struggling to find good quality employees
– Cannot offer attractive wages & career
paths
• In survival mode
• PwC-CSI Community Index June 2013

7. The Statistics
• ABS - Participation in voluntary work
– 1995 – 3.2M or 24% of over 18s
– 2000 – 4.4M or 32% of over 18s
– 2006 – 5.2M or 34% of over 18s
– 2010 – 6.1M or 36% of over 18s
• The changing nature of volunteering
– Virtual volunteering;
– Corporate & school volunteer programs;
 National Student Volunteer Week 4-10 August 2014
– Growing demand for skilled volunteering

8. The Other Side of the Equation
• People living longer in retirement & looking
for meaningful engagement
– In the economy & community
• Unemployment amongst young people is
high
• Employers look for workers with experience
(but not too much)
• Volunteering provides opportunities for
personal development, recreation &
expansion of social networks

9. What is Volunteering?
• Formal volunteering is an activity which takes
place through not-for-profit organisations or
projects & is undertaken:
 To be of benefit to the community & volunteer;
 Of the volunteer’s own free will & without coercion;
 For no financial payment; and
 In designated volunteer positions only.
Volunteering Australia
• Unpaid non compulsory work; that is, time individuals
give without pay to activities performed either through an
organisation or directly for others outside their own
household
International Labour Organisation

10. What is Employment?
• Employment Relationship
– Legal link between a person, called the
‘employee’ with another person, called the
‘employer’ to whom she or he provides labour or
services under certain conditions in return for
remuneration
International Labour Organisation
• Paid Work
– Any activity that is undertaken at the direction of
an employer & is financially compensable

11. Differences in the “Workplace”
Employee Volunteer
Remuneration (tax & superannuation) Optional: Reimburse expenses, vouchers,
honorariums
Vicarious liability Vicarious liability but protected by Civil
Liability legislation
Work Health & Safety laws Work Health & Safety laws
Industrial laws Not Applicable
Anti-bullying laws (FWA) Anti-bullying laws (FWA)
Police checks for working with vulnerable
people
Police checks for working with vulnerable
people
Equal Opportunity & Anti-Discrimination
Laws apply
Inconsistency across the states
Potential Union Representation No Union Representation

12. What Creates Tension?
• Employees’ Perspective:
– Jobs are threatened
concerned they are being:
 Displaced; or
 Replaced
– Volunteers are a burden rather than a help
Don’t have the skills or knowledge for the role
– Volunteers aren’t reliable
They don’t have to be here
– Difficulty in managing volunteers
Role of the Volunteer Manager

13. What Creates Tension?
• Volunteers’ Perspective:
– Not valued – lack of recognition
– No clear management
– Lack of engagement/feedback
– Participating can involve cost
– Lack of relevant training
– Desire to volunteer for more than one
organisation

14. What Creates Tension
• Organisational Perspective
– How to value volunteer contribution
Is it best measured by hours contributed & dollars
saved
– Cost of managing volunteers
– Cost of protecting volunteers
Insurance
– Success of volunteer programs may justify
reduced funding
Support for volunteering does not imply support for
government downsizing or replacing paid work

15. What about the Board?
• Most are still volunteers
– Highest paid employee reports to volunteers
– Volunteer Directors are ultimately responsible
– The CEO Director
• One way to attract experience & quality is to
pay Directors
– What happens when some are paid & others are
not?
– Or, some are paid more than others?

16. Scenario 1
• Your organisation, Happy Valley Counselling Ltd
provides advocacy & support services to 3 rural towns
in Happy Valley
• You & your senior social worker are volunteers for the
Rural Fire Brigade
• It is late October, winter has been very dry & the
inevitable happens when a cigarette butt is carelessly
thrown from a car window
• The fire is threatening 2 of the towns & the 3 is
inundated with families needing shelter & support
• The call comes from your brigade unit………….

17. Scenario 2
• You are CEO of Urban Renewal Inc, which undertakes
rehabilitation of industrial sites & campaigns for action on
climate change
• Green Petroleum Pty Ltd has an office in the same
building as Urban Renewal
• Green Petroleum has obtained drilling permits in a
pristine section of reef
• Its manager contacts you about:
– The company’s compulsory employee volunteer program –
she has 20 employees who want to work on your project to
rehabilitate a petrol station site; &
– A cash donation of $200,000 as part of their social
responsibility commitment

18. Scenario 3
• Your organisation supports women & children affected by
family violence
• Past fund raising efforts have made it possible to
purchase a house which is used to provide emergency
accommodation
• You have just been advised by the Department of
Families that you will no longer receive funding for
support services
• There is no option but to make staff redundant
• How do you keep the refuge operating effectively?

19. Scenario 4
• You are CEO of Greenacres Care Ltd, an approved
provider of residential aged care
• Greenacres is situated in a rural town & has 85 places
• In preparation for the 2014 reforms & with the support of
the Chair, you recruited a financial guru onto the Board
• The guru’s time is very valuable & he will be a paid
Director
• For many years the Chair has been paid an honorarium of
$800 per year but the other 5 Directors are volunteers &
have all been doing it tough as a result of the drought

20. Scenario 5
• You have moved into the capital city in your state & taken a
position as CEO of a refugee support service
• The service is located in an inner city suburb
• The demographics of the suburb are such that there are a
lot of retirees with time on their hands & students who
attend the nearby university
• Volunteers are vital to the service & you have been
inundated by:
– Students with limited life experience who are looking for work
experience & a way to express their disapproval of government
refugee policies; &
– Older Australians of Celtic origins with no foreign language skills
• Discuss

21. Scenario 6
• Having decided city living is not for you, you have moved to
a semi-rural idyll on the outskirts of a major regional centre
• Your new employer provides supports to young people living
with a disability
• For clients who have difficulty controlling aggression, the
organisation’s policy requires supports to be delivered by 2
people
• Funding cuts have meant that the organisation is
increasingly reliant on volunteers & has limited training
resources
• Last week, a support worker, Sharon visited John Brown, a
25 year old young man with an acquired brain injury who
lives on a farm

22. Scenario 6 (cont’d)
• Sharon was accompanied by a volunteer; Joe Smith
• Joe loves poultry and would dearly love to have a rooster
but he lives in town & local government by-laws prohibit
the keeping of roosters
• Joe was distracted by the magnificent rooster in the
poultry run and while his back was turned, John hit Sharon
across the back with a rake causing significant soft tissue
damage and lacerations
• In accordance with your policies, you withdraw services &
the client’s family is irate
• Your workers are refusing to use volunteers for client visits
• What happens next?

23. Charter of Relationship
• Set of principles to underpin good
relationships
• Recognise the value of both employees &
volunteers
• Guide the development of more detailed
policies & procedures
• Ideally developed with input from both
employees & volunteers

24. Charter of Relationship
• Where to begin?
– Acknowledgement of respect of rights
– Reimbursement of expenses for volunteers
– Job protection
– Principles for determining what activities volunteers
will be involved in
– How will volunteer contribution be included in
grant/funding applications?
– Training & development opportunities
– Mechanism for resolution of problems
– Development of volunteering policies & procedures
– What happens during industrial disputes

25. “Volunteering is about the community owning socialand economic challenges”
“Volunteering
isnotjust
som
eone
doing
som
ething
forfree
–
its
aboutm
eeting
com
m
unity
needs
in
an
organized,
coordinated
way”
“There is a role in defining
volunteering but beyond that there
are individual stories, and they will
be a millionfold”
“You
can
never determ
ine
a
person’s
m
otivation. (But) W
e
can
say
that there
has
to
be
a
choice
in
whether they
volunteer”
“..it is a two-way
thing. It’s about
what the
volunteer gives &
what the position
offers him/her”
“..it is a two-way
thing. It’s about
what the
volunteer gives &
what the position
offers him/her”

26. Thank You / The End
JOANNE O’BRIEN
CRH Law
Level 10, 193 North Quay
Brisbane Qld 4000
P: 07 3236 2900
E:jobrien@crhlaw.com.au