Volunteers

X v Mid-Sussex Citizens Advice Bureau and others [2011] EWCA Civ 28; SJ 1 February p5

The claimant alleged that she had been discriminated against on grounds of disability when she was asked to cease acting as a volunteer case worker with a Citizen’s Advice Bureau. It was far from obvious that it would be thought desirable to include volunteers within the scope of the discrimination legislation relating to employment. It was inconceivable that the European Union would not have dealt specifically with the position of volunteers if the intention had been to include them. A concept of a worker has been restricted to persons who are remunerated for what they do. The concept of occupation is essentially an overlapping one and there was no reason to suppose that it was intended to cover nonremunerated work. Although the fact the EU Institutions appeared to have implicitly excluded volunteering from the scope of the equal treatment directive was not a decisive consideration it carried considerable weight and jarred with the submission that it was obvious that the draftsman must have intended to include volunteers within the scope of the directive. Accordingly the court held that volunteers working unpaid do not fall within the scope of anti-discrimination employment laws.