Complying with HSWA 2015
A practical guide to understanding your obligations under HSWA 2015 and taking proactive steps to protect the health, safety and welfare of workers and others.
All About Volunteers
Volunteer or volunteer worker? How HSWA 2015 treats each, what counts as a volunteer organisation, and the duties volunteers and volunteer workers have.
Did you know?
Understanding the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA)
1. What Is a Volunteer vs a Volunteer Worker?
Volunteer
A volunteer is a person who is acting on a voluntary basis, whether or not they receive out-of-pocket expenses. This can include anyone who helps out, from a casual one-off contributor to someone who works regularly for your organisation.
Volunteer worker
A volunteer worker is a person who works with your knowledge and consent, on an ongoing or regular basis, and whose work is an integral part of your business or undertaking. For example, someone who staffs a community centre two days a week or a trained volunteer providing aged care services as core to your charity’s work.
Why the distinction matters
Volunteer workers are treated as workers under HSWA. Casual or one-off volunteers are treated as ‘other persons’ at the workplace. This affects the duties your organisation owes them and the duties they owe in return.
Scenarios
| Volunteer | Volunteer Worker |
|---|---|
| Someone who helps out at a community garden one Saturday morning | A person trained as a volunteer visitor who comes to an aged care home every Tuesday and Thursday to spend time with residents as core to the home’s service |
| A person who helps set up chairs and tables at a local sports club’s annual fundraiser | A person who staffs a community centre information desk three evenings a week, answering enquiries and managing bookings as core to the centre’s operations |
2. What Is a Volunteer Organisation and What Isn’t?
What is a volunteer organisation
A volunteer organisation is a group of volunteers working together for community purposes (such as art, culture, science, religion, education, sport or recreation) where none of the volunteers employs any person to carry out work for the organisation. These organisations are not covered by HSWA because they are not PCBUs (persons conducting a business or undertaking).
What is not a volunteer organisation
Any organisation that employs even one person is not a volunteer organisation under HSWA. This means:
- A community group running entirely on volunteers but with one paid coordinator is a PCBU and has HSWA duties
- A charity or non-profit with paid staff and volunteers is a PCBU with HSWA duties
- A sports club with committee members who volunteer but that employs a coordinator is a PCBU with HSWA duties
Scenarios
| Volunteer Organisation (No HSWA duties) | Not a Volunteer Organisation (Has HSWA duties) |
|---|---|
| A local historical society run by volunteers with no paid staff. All committee members are volunteers. | A community group maintaining a local reserve with entirely volunteer members, but that employs one part-time grounds maintenance coordinator |
| A sports club where all officers are volunteers, the team is made up of volunteers, and there is no paid administration or support | A registered charity providing aged care services with a mix of paid staff and volunteer workers |
3. What Duties Do Volunteers Have?
Volunteers (who are not volunteer workers) are treated as ‘other persons’ at the workplace. They must:
- Take reasonable care that anything they do or do not do will not cause others harm
- Comply with any reasonable instructions about health and safety given by the organisation
Scenarios
What volunteers should do:
- Wear the high-visibility vest you have been given when helping at a fundraiser on a roadside, so drivers can see you
- Follow the safety briefing about where not to walk in a conservation area you are helping to restore
- Report to the coordinator if you notice a broken step at a community event you are helping to set up
What volunteers should not do:
- Use power tools at a community project without training, even if you think you know how
- Tell others to ignore a safety instruction or warning
- Continue working in a way you can see is creating a risk, without speaking to the coordinator
4. What Duties Do Volunteer Workers Have?
Volunteer workers are treated as workers under HSWA. They must:
- Take reasonable care of their own health and safety
- Take reasonable care that anything they do or do not do does not adversely affect the health and safety of other people
- Cooperate with any reasonable policies or procedures the organisation has about safe and healthy work
- Comply with any reasonable instruction given by the organisation so that it can meet its legal duties
Scenarios
What volunteer workers should do:
- Attend the health and safety induction and training required for your role at an aged care facility
- Use proper manual handling techniques when assisting residents, as instructed
- Report to your supervisor if a piece of equipment you use regularly is not working properly
- Let management know if you feel a procedure or policy is creating a safety risk
What volunteer workers should not do:
- Skip the induction or training sessions because you are just a volunteer
- Ignore a safety procedure because you think a faster way will work
- Continue working when injured or unwell without telling your supervisor
- Remove or bypass safety equipment or controls
More insights
All insights
Engaging with Workers
Engaging workers is not just good practice, it is a legal requirement under HSWA 2015. Here is how the Act frames worker engagement and participation.
Key Duties under HSWA
Under HSWA 2015, everyone involved in work has a part to play in protecting health and safety. A plain-language rundown of the key duties set out in the Act.
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