Aside from the funding issues, has anyone else considered the potential for problems concerning existing Action Groups, Canal Partnerships / projects etc run by volunteers? Essentially these dedicated people organise themselves & have done independently for years…
This is where I foresee some fragmentation if new rules & regs are imposed, especially those concerning Health & Safety. One rule for all, or different rules for some? The words “jig-saw that won’t fit” come to mind. Then again are there enough Trustees to oversee & co-ordinate all this fairly, & rule out confusion? Personally, what with all the other major problems to face, I don’t think there is…
And another thing is the potential prospect of the trustees either being all “on the same page.” Or do they share them out so they each deal with separate issues in different ways?
Oh I’m so good with questions I haven’t got an answer for…
6 comments:
The Health & Safety rules are the same whoever you work for or volunteer for. What changes is the interpretation of the risk and the mitigation of it. BW staff working near water are usually wearing life jackets as BW deem this a sensible safety measure in case you fall in. Another waterways body I know leaves it to the discretion of the employees. They have river navigations and weirs and it is deemed a risk to be wearing a life jacket if you fall in and are dragged through a weir, so the employees have to decide which is the greater risk. H&S is about understanding risks and taking reasonable steps to reduce them. WRG have been managing volunteers for years, including using heavy equipment and chainsaws, by ensuring volunteers are properly trained. This includes the use of suitable safety procedures or equipment where appropriate.
Thanks Mike,
A nice non-biased, easy to understand answer. Aside from funding, if thats the basis for the future of volunteering then it sounds promising.
How refreshing compared to the battleground on Waterscape this aft. I'm out of there..
H
Safety comes in two flavours, your own and that of others. Whilst you may choose to ignore your own safety by not wearing a lifevest. The problems comes with the duty of care that we have for each other.
So as I am moving along the canal a volunteer lock keeper, opens a paddle which causes an accident to occur. Who will be at risk of a third party claim for damages. Will CaRT have sufficent insurance cover for their volunteers.
After a recent ruling by three judges that a Citizens Advice Bureau volunteer is not covered by employment law because he/she did not have a contract of employment and was not paid. The decision was welcomed by the Association of Volunteer Managers. If the appeal had been allowed, they argued, it would potentially have created a huge financial burden for many charities and deterred them from taking on volunteers.
Paul Michell, the barrister who successfully represented the CAB, recognises that the outcome does not leave a satisfactory state of affairs. "If volunteers are not protected under employment and occupation directives, then how are they protected?" he said after the case. "That is the next question."
Rob Jackson, director of development and innovation at VE, said it was pleased with the Court of Appeal's decision. "We don't think volunteering is the same as paid work," he says. "Making it so would create another set of problems. It would put up barriers to volunteering when we're trying to encourage more of it."
Kate Bowgett, Association of Volunteer Managers, also thinks the appeal court got it right. Volunteers she says, "don't exist legally".
Volunteers may not be covered by third pary liability insurance - it needs a court case to sort it out.
I don't intend to be the crash test dummy, so I shall not touch CaRT or any other charity based volunteering with a barge pole.
Ask yourself another question - who at a set of locks will be in charge. You with some knowledge of working your boat through hundreds of locks. Or a well meaning CaRT volunteer after a days training?
Right, thats it I'm hanging up my life jacket - would make a most unique fender if nothing else!
Are you going to do a blog post about this, people need to know & you're a fountain of knowledge ;-)
H
Thank you for your warm words of encouragement, the cheque is in the post. As a dried up "fountain of knowledge" think prune, I did a post on the confusion created by the court findings as you suggested.
http://the-onion-bargee.blogspot.com/2012/01/are-you-up-for-being-cart-volunteer.html
As is the case (no pun intended) the court created more ambiguity than any real sense or guidance. I have the feeling that one day it will end in tears for someone who genuinely set out with good intentions. Buoyed up somewhat by the lame rhetoric of Posh Dave's Big Society
http://the-onion-bargee.blogspot.com/2011/07/big-society.html
PS, The queen has decided to align her triumphal procession along the Thames on the 3rd of June with my birthday celebrations. More on this later... you heard it here first.
Mick
Yes, I meant to say it's a sorry state of affairs, in the words of the late great Jerry Rafferty "That's just the way it is."
Re: The Queen, she's a good friend of mine so I'll have a word about a birthday card. She used to come round for a BBQ every summer at the other marina we were at.
Ahh I remember it well, a beefeater wheeled her in around 6pm with her Pound Shop handbag sat on her knee. Then we all used to breathe a sigh of relief when she finally fell asleep on her plastic chair around 7.30pm... Poor woman, us plebs were just too boring for one to tolerate, especially when one has had a glass or 2 of cheap vino.. lol
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