19th February 2012, 08:18 PM
(This post was last modified: 19th February 2012, 08:26 PM by Wax.)
It may be that this company has a very wide range of projects some of which are commercial some of which are community and they may well argue that the volunteers are an addition and that in fact it costs them more to have them on site along with their professional Outreach Officer. There is such a fine line to this volunteer opportunity or exploitation. The rule of thumb is if it costs more to have volunteers and public engagement than it would to tackle the site as a purely commercial project then it is valid community outreach
If the volunteers are a free work force for a commercial job then it is exploitation.
I think there is a real issue here but it is very difficult to decide what is and is not exploitation. I do a lot of volunteer work but it is always on none commercial projects.
You can have volunteers on commercial projects but the volunteer must gain something from the work. The reality is that if you are providing opportunities for training and volunteer participation this will add to the cost of the commercial work and not reduce it. If you think you can get the job done at a cheaper rate by allowing volunteers to participate then you are exploiting those volunteers.
If the volunteers are a free work force for a commercial job then it is exploitation.
I think there is a real issue here but it is very difficult to decide what is and is not exploitation. I do a lot of volunteer work but it is always on none commercial projects.
You can have volunteers on commercial projects but the volunteer must gain something from the work. The reality is that if you are providing opportunities for training and volunteer participation this will add to the cost of the commercial work and not reduce it. If you think you can get the job done at a cheaper rate by allowing volunteers to participate then you are exploiting those volunteers.