A recent decision from the Court of Appeal provides a useful reminder that describing an arrangement as "voluntary" will not, by itself, prevent statutory worker rights from arising where, in substance, there is a contract for the provision of services in return for remuneration.
The judgment is a useful reminder that tribunals will look beyond the language used by the parties and focus instead on the reality of how the relationship operates. This is particularly relevant where volunteers receive payments linked to attendance or performance.
The law draws important distinctions between employees, workers and volunteers. Employees enjoy the widest range of statutory protections, including unfair dismissal rights. Workers benefit from a more limited but still significant set of rights, such as the national minimum wage, paid holiday and the right to be accompanied at disciplinary hearings. Volunteers, by contrast, generally fall outside employment legislation altogether, because they do not work under a contract and do not provide services in return for remuneration.
In Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) v Groom, the Court of Appeal considered whether a long-standing volunteer coastal rescue officer could qualify as a "worker" for employment law purposes. The individual had signed a volunteer handbook describing the relationship as non-contractual. He was not paid automatically for attending activities, but he was entitled to claim...
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