Posted By Richard Chalkley
Is anyone aware of some good examples of Health and Safety law being applied to a volunteer / charity as if they were an employee.

Specifically I am looking to see if a volunteer has ever sued a charity (successfully or otherwise) for a breach of the duty of care to an employee.

Thanks,

Richard.

Posted By Phil Grace
Interesting response from Michael and I do not really challenge anything that he has stated. However... I do have some comments.
From the perspective of an insurer I can confirm that volunteers are reagrded as employees for the purpose of an Employers' Liability policy. That is just a contractual convenence since we would undoubtedly end up with the claim, if not as an employee then as a Third Party under the Public Liability policy. Just think about all those who act as volunteers at heritage railway centres... the risk to the volunteers is much more an EL risk - the paying public face different, lower risks!!!
But I have sat in meetings with organisations from the charity and vountary sector - at which the HSE representative expressly stated that they regarded volunteers as employees!

Posted By Michael Hayward
Its all down to the definition of "employee" and "at work" as defined by HASWA. The HSE would dearly love to class volunteers as "employees" but can't without changing the Act.
That does not mean of course that you can abrogate your duty of care as required under sect 3 HASWA
As far as managing this in the voluntary sector is conserned , I make no distinction between paid staff and volunteers when it comes to policies and procedures. I consider a volunteer is at work- in the non legal sense, at all times that the person is carrying out the duties for which they have volunteered.

Incidentally one of the reasons HSE wants to see a change in under the reporting resonsibilities under RIDDOR. Under the current arrangements the only reportable accidents (other than fatals etc) are accidents where the injured volunteer "is taken directly to hospital, and receives treatment"
It gets complicated!!

Posted By Jack
A couple of general points:

Richard is specifically asking about civil liability and so HASAWA is a bit of a red herring. As Phil says it doesn't really matter whether its EL or OL.

The reference to Work Experience is also a red herring as it is made explicit that for the purposes of H&S legislation they are 'employees' and therefore Section 2 applies. That won't be the case with other volunteers.

Posted By David J Bristow
Richard

With regards to Michael’s response – I would state that volunteers are classed as employees and afford the same rights for Health and Safety as paid employees.

Furthermore, some, if not all Insurance companies, take the view that volunteers are classed, for insurance purposes as employees.

Not really surprising as the largest employer in England, is the voluntary and community sector with a workforce of 20,000,000: paid and unpaid persons.

Where an insurance company does not regard volunteers as employees then they would be covered by the organisations public liability insurance (not a legal requirement) if there were to be an accident.

As regards to case law, I do not have to hand a case law about an individual talking a voluntary organisation to court – but I do know of a couple of cases where relatives of the diseased have taken voluntary organisations to court – I don’t think it appropriate to name them, but if you email me direct I can give you further info!

Hope this helps


Regards



David B

Posted By steven bentham
I am assuming you are looking at criminal responsibility as opposed to civil liability.

If the organisation is an employer then you could well assume that the HSE will look to protection of volunteers under section 3(1) of HASAWA.

You could have a wholly voluntary organisation, undertaking charity work or running a sports club, who is not an employer and their undertaking is not at work - you could say that in this instance they are then outwith HASWA duties.