AS IT is Volunteers’ Week (Letters, June 1), it cannot be inappropriate to remind prospective volunteers that, as volunteers, they will have no legal status.
In the past, this was of no great concern. Recruiting organisations all tended to be worthy charities, such as Macmillan Cancer Support.
With the advent of recruiting agencies, and the stimulus of the “Big Society”, many organisations now find the idea of unpaid staff, without the annoyance of trades union interference, rather attractive.
There may be few paid jobs advertised these days, but there are pages devoted to volunteers.
People go into volunteering as they go into matrimony, with high hopes and a belief that things could never go wrong for them.
Unfortunately, things can go wrong. Then volunteers find, to their astonishment, that however much the gift of their “time, enthusiasm and energy” is recognised, they have no redress, and precious little sympathy.
Nor must they expect help from the Ombudsman. The remit of the Ombudsman specifically excludes complaints from volunteers.
Lawyers come in for a deal of criticism, but not from those suddenly awakened to the realisation that they are denied the law’s protection.
William Dixon Smith, Welland Rise, Acomb, York.
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