Voluntary Risk Avoidance – When Is A Volunteer Not A Volunteer?

Throughout Canada, every employer is governed by some type of employment legislation, usually called the Employment Standards Act (in Ontario and British Columbia, for example) or the Employment Standards Code (in Alberta, for example). Such employment standards legislation is generally similar throughout Canada and is designed to provide protection to employees from would-be unscrupulous employers by, for example, providing a right to minimum notice on termination of employment, a right to a minimum wage and overtime rates as well as providing various mandatory types of leave to employees, such as maternity leave.

The vast majority of charities simply could not exist without the dedicated work of an army of volunteers. Volunteers generally provide voluntary work for which they are not paid. Volunteers are not subject to the protections afforded by employment standards legislation. It is not always easy, from a legal perspective, however, to distinguish between an