Ten steps to a safer organisation
All not-for-profit organisations need to ensure that every effort is made to protect public safety…
Justice Connect’s Not-for-profit Law service has compiled these answers to questions about dealing with volunteers during the pandemic, and we thank them for sharing them with us as part of the Save Our Sector campaign to assist not-for-profits. We’ve abridged some of the answers for brevity and style and added some additional resources.
State and territory public health guidelines and orders set out varying restrictions on gatherings and movement. Some of these address volunteers directly. Here are links to relevant public health directions and notices: ACT | NSW | NT | QLD | SA | TAS | VIC | WA
Remember, volunteers do not have a legal obligation to attend the workplace, or to continue to volunteer for your organisation. Check in with your volunteers regularly and ask if they feel comfortable continuing to volunteer. More information about the nature of the volunteering relationship can be found in the National Volunteer Guide (links below).
Organisations that engage court-ordered volunteers or mutual obligation volunteers should speak to their government contact about the best steps to take.
Recommendations on measures you should take to reduce the spread of COVID-19 are changing rapidly. To properly assess the risk to your organisation, your volunteers and the people your volunteers are interacting with, it’s important to closely monitor and comply with the latest information and guidelines provided by the World Health Organization, the Australian Department of Health, and your state or territory health department.
The risk to your volunteers will vary depending on your organisation and the industry in which you operate. As the situation continues to evolve rapidly, we recommend organisations conduct risk assessments as frequently as possible.
When thinking about volunteer safety while COVID-19 is prevalent, community organisations must consider the “two sides to safety” – that is, both the safety of the volunteer, and the safety of the people with whom the volunteer interacts, such as clients, employees, other volunteers and members of the public.
Community organisations’ responsibilities to their volunteers are set out in common and statutory law. Organisations have a responsibility to ensure the health and safety of their volunteers to the extent reasonably possible and they owe a duty of care to their volunteers. The outbreak of COVID-19 can be regarded as a foreseeable risk, and community groups are required to take reasonable steps to protect volunteers in light of that risk.
Community organisations have a responsibility to take reasonable precautions to ensure the safety of people interacting with their volunteers. In each Australian jurisdiction, legislation sets out special protection for volunteers from personal liability for anything done, or not done, in good faith when performing community work for a community organisation. Accordingly, where a volunteer exposes another person, such as a client or service-user, to infection or harm, your organisation may be responsible.
Read more about volunteer safety in Part 3 of the National Volunteer Guide.
The reasonable precautions you can take depend on factors including:
Our Community has published this Epidemic & Pandemic Policy, which you can adapt to suit your organisation, and this returning to work guide, which examines managing risk.
An organisation could be held liable in certain circumstances. Organisations have safety obligations under the common law (judge-made law) of negligence, under the negligence provisions in state and territory legislation, and in many circumstances under work health and safety laws (occupational health and safety laws).
Under these laws all organisations are required to take action to manage the risk of COVID-19 to workers (including volunteers) and others in the work environment. The outbreak of COVID-19 can be regarded as a foreseeable risk, and community groups are required to take reasonable steps to protect volunteers, and the people with whom volunteers interact, in light of that risk.
Organisations must comply with national and state public health directions in relation to COVID-19. If your organisation fails to comply with a direction issued by your state government or the federal government, your organisation could face legal consequences. Following these steps should mean there is a relatively low risk of your organisation being found to be liable (for example, in negligence) for any injury, loss or damage suffered by a volunteer as a consequence of COVID-19.
Organisations will need to carefully balance the risk to health and safety against the critical services your organisation provides.
If your organisation has volunteer personal accident insurance, check with your broker about what is and what is not covered, including asking volunteers to work remotely.
Here’s a Q&A about options from Aon, the preferred insurer for both Our Community and Volunteering Australia.
It depends. Allowing volunteers to work from home may not be sensible in all situations. If your volunteers require high levels of supervision (for example, engaging with difficult or challenging clients), your organisation may need to consider whether it is appropriate to ask your volunteers to work remotely. Remember, you have a duty of care to ensure the safety (physical and psychological) of your volunteers and clients, and this can be difficult to monitor if your volunteers are working remotely.
Tips for working from home | Returning to the workplace
If it’s safe to have your volunteers volunteer remotely, make sure they have the necessary equipment and training, and a safe environment in which to work.
Consider what measures your organisation can put in place to support volunteers. This could include, for example, conducting meetings via video and sending work to be reviewed by email.
If any of your volunteers has a confirmed or suspected case of COVID-19, you should follow appropriate safety protocols.
Ordinarily, it would be ideal to have an appropriate person conduct a risk assessment onsite at the volunteer's proposed remote working premises. However, this can be difficult in the current environment.
Instead, we recommend providing a checklist or questionnaire for volunteers to complete themselves. This checklist or questionnaire could address elements such as the placement and height of chairs relative to desks, the angle of monitor screens or laptops, and the surrounding environment generally.
If a volunteer requests that your organisation conduct a physical inspection of the premises where they propose to work, consider whether this request is practicable for your organisation. When considering the request, make sure that conducting a physical inspection won’t expose any of your other workers to COVID-19 (for example, if the workers conduct an assessment at premises where there is a suspected or confirmed case of COVID-19).
It’s important to consider and identify which functions of your organisation are critical, and which require volunteer assistance to operate smoothly. You can explore options such as:
If your organisation wants to recruit new volunteers, it should be able to do this if risks are managed carefully. Regardless of the current situation, organisations still have legal obligations in relation to the recruitment and induction of volunteers.
For more information, read Part 5 of the National Volunteer Guide. See also the Good Jobs free employee induction manual.
Your organisation could consider reviewing existing recruitment processes to minimise face-to-face contact. For example, your organisation could request applications by email only, and conduct interviews via telephone or video. Consider moving any onboarding and training processes online. Also consider, for roles likely to require physical proximity, whether medical clearance should be required.
Organisations should consider:
It’s important that senior members of your organisation are aware of this plan and their associated responsibilities.
Given the rapid evolution of the COVID-19 situation and your circumstances, a specific COVID-19 policy may not be prudent nor effective. However, there are other options your organisation could consider. For example, if it is practical for your organisation, you may wish to appoint a COVID-19 risk manager to be responsible for:
This person could also be responsible for informing volunteers (and staff more generally) of your organisation's response, the measures your organisation has implemented, and how your organisation is managing risk, reputation, workplace culture, mental health and morale impacts in the face of unique, rapidly changing circumstances.
This is an abridged Q&A reproduced with permission. See the original version here.
This help sheet is just one of the ways the Our Community Group is working to support not-for-profits through the COVID-19 crisis, as part of our major campaign to help the not-for-profit sector to survive, re-invent and sustain.