The case of X v Mid Sussex Citizens Advice Bureau has demonstrated an important point of law regarding the rights of voluntary workers.

The claimant, “X”, was a disabled woman who worked for between four and five hours a week for the Mid Sussex Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) on a voluntary basis. When she first began working for the organisation, she signed a volunteer agreement that was described as “binding in honour only … and not a contract of employment or legally binding”.

Throughout the course of her work with the CAB, X did not attend the bureau 25-30% of the time when she was expected to be there. However, the bureau did not object to this, nor to X changing the days on which she worked.

Eventually, she was asked to stop volunteering by the CAB, and subsequently brought a claim under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995, alleging that she had been discriminated against due to her disability.

She argued that the DDA should be interpreted loosely so that her time with the CAB could be deemed as being “in employment”, which would give her the full protection against discrimination detailed in the DDA. The tribunal, however, disagreed, finding that, as X had no legally binding contract with the CAB and was under no obligation to provide services for the organisation, she could not be considered an employee, and so the DDA did not apply to her.

X then took her case to the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT), where she argued that the Equal Treatment Framework Directive had not been correctly implemented by the UK government, and that certain sections of the DDA did not comply with European law.

The EAT did not accept her arguments. Mr Justice Burton, the presiding judge in the appeal, could find no express reference anywhere in the directive that indicated that discrimination legislation applied to unpaid voluntary workers. He declined to refer the case to the European Court of Justice, because he considered the answer to be “entirely clear”.

Technorati Tags: Disability Discrimination, Employee Rights, Voluntary Employment