Volunteer FAQs
1. Do we need insurance for our volunteers?
Yes, we usually recommend that not-for-profit community organisations have appropriate insurance coverage for volunteers.
There are a number of risk management practices that organisations can take to:
- ensure its volunteers work in a safe environment;
- reduce the risk of harm or injury to volunteers; and
- ensure that any potential liability the organisation may have for the actions of its volunteers is minimised.
Having appropriate insurance coverage should be one feature of a risk management plan.
PilchConnect has developed a guide to provide community organisations with a basic overview of risk management planning and the types of insurance that your community organisation may wish to consider. It looks at some of the legal issues that may arise when your organisation enters into a contract for insurance.
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This publication outlines why it is important to manage risk and provides a simple 4-step guide to identifying and treating risks in organisations that have volunteers. It includes templates and other tools that your organisation can use as well as case studies.
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This section of the Our Community website provides information on insurance and risk management for community organisations who have volunteers.
2. Does our organisation own the intellectual property in material produced by a volunteer?
The way the law treats volunteers, for the purpose of intellectual property law in Australia, is very different from the way it treats employees.
In general terms, if an employee of a community organisation creates material or an invention during the course of their employment, the law considers that the employer will own the intellectual property in the material or invention.
However, if a volunteer creates material or an invention for your community organisation, the law considers that the volunteer retains the intellectual property in the material or invention. Your organisation will only be the owner of the intellectual property if the volunteer assigns (gives) their rights in the intellectual property to your organisation. If your community organisation wants to own the intellectual property rights in materials created by its volunteers, it should include this as part of the volunteer agreement when a volunteer commences with an organisation.
To find out more about community organisations and intellectual property, go to our Guide:
3. Do tax laws apply to payments we make to our volunteers?
This is a very big question and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has developed a specific guide for organisations to work out how the tax laws might apply to payments amde to a volunteer. The publication is called Volunteers and Tax and includes case examples of the kind of transactions that might take place between a community organisation and its volunteers, and the way that the tax laws will apply.
There are a number of situations where an organisation may make payments to, or on behalf of, its volunteers.
These include:
- making payments to its volunteers, such as reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses (for meals, accommodation, postal costs), allowances, or honoraria
- providing volunteers with non-cash benefits, such as meals or gifts, and / or
- purchasing goods (or services) for its volunteers.
Your organisation needs to go to the Tax Office guide to consider whether and how tax laws (for example income tax, goods and services tax, fringe benefits tax or other taxes) apply to these types of transactions. You may also need advice from a tax specialist.
4. Do Victorian Equal Opportunity laws apply to our organisation?
Yes, but the application of the discrimination provisions in the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic) to volunteers is not a straightforward area of law.
For information, go to:
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The Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission has released a fact sheet and FAQs for volunteer-involving community organisations on sexual harassment and discrimination under the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic).
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Volunteering Victoria has produced an information pack to support volunteers and organisations to understand and meet their responsibilities under the Equal Opportunity Act 2010.
5. What legal issues does our organisation need to consider when taking on children and young people as volunteers?
Under the age of 15
If a volunteer is under the age of 15 the Child Employment Act 2003 (Vic) applies. In general, you can't have someone under 13 years old volunteering for you. A child volunteer can only perform 'light work' and for limited hours.
The Act specifies a number of requirements for engaging a child volunteer, including:
- a permit for child employment
- written consent of the parent or guardian of the child
- proper supervision
- ensuring that anyone in a position of supervision of a child has a valid Working with Children (WWC) check card (for more information see Volunteer Recruitment).
There are some exceptions, most relevantly if a child is being directly engaged by your organisation to do door-to-door fundraising the Act does not apply.
For more information go to: