Do we need to do ID Checks on our volunteers to ensure the have the ‘right to volunteer in the UK’?
Asked by Russell Cowan
OK, let me start by saying I’m no legal expert and I’m definitely not 100% up-to-speed on immigration law, especially after Brexit and the UK’s status as a third country in regard to those nations who remain within the EU. So, please don’t act on my advice without getting it checked by an appropriately qualified expert.
My response is based on my experience of this conversation cropping up over the years in organisations I have worked in and with.
The root cause of the desire to ID check volunteers for the specific purpose of the right to work in the UK is that anyone employed illegally in the country could result in hefty financial penalties for the employer.
Whilst there are rules around who can and can not volunteer in the UK, I am not aware of instances where such financial penalties have been applied to the volunteer-involving organisation (feel free to correct me if I am wrong).
So, the need to ID check volunteers for this purpose is usually because:
If the volunteer falls out with the organisation and seeks employee status, for example, to gain access to rights under discrimination legislation which doesn’t apply to volunteers…
If that volunteer is successful in gaining employment status…
If that volunteer isn’t legally allowed to be employed in the UK, for example, they were allowed to volunteer as an asylum seeker but were not allowed to be employed…
Then, the volunteer-involving / employing organisation would be liable to a fine for employing someone illegally
As you can see, that’s a lot of ifs!
Whilst a lawyer would rightly do their job and say you should check volunteer IDs because this might happen, a good Volunteer Manager would, in my view, look at this as a risk management situation.
How likely is it that all those ‘ifs’ happen?
What is the severity of the consequence if they do?
What steps can we take to reduce the risk?
What is the retained risk?
For example, if we don’t racially discriminate against volunteers then we reduce the risk that they will want to take us to a tribunal to gain employee status and thus protection under racial discrimination legislation.
The other factor to consider is that if we ID check volunteers we have to ID check all of them. We can't just check those we think might not be eligible to work or volunteer in the UK as that way lies all kinds of potentially awful discriminatory behaviour.
I hope that’s helpful Russell. I’m not giving a straight yes or no question for the reasons I stated at the start of my answer, but I hope my thoughts go some way to helping to consider this issue in your organisation.
Now it’s over to you.
How would you answer Russell’s question?
Leave a comment with your ideas and don’t forget to ask your own question by emailing Rob now — rob@robjacksonconsulting.com, with the subject line “Ask Rob Anything“