Allotment Stuff > The Basics

Are Volunteers or Working Parties Allowed

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ibeirne:
We are told volunteers or working parties to carry out work on boundaries or common areas are not allowed by our association because they would constitute employees and effect our insurance costs - is this correct?  It sounds a bit strange to me.

BarriedaleNick:
We had work parties twice a year for ages and of course informal work parties to do jobs around the site on an ad hoc basis.
It sounds like someone is using it as an excuse not to get things done...

Obelixx:
I think insurance companies know the difference between employees and volunteers.   If a committee meeting Minutes a decision to invite or allow volunteers to do some work to the benefit of the site and its safety or access than there should be no problem.

Ask to see the insurance contract?  That should clear it up.

Beersmith:
I am not really sure that I understand the question.

Who is the"we" that are being told that they cannot perform collective voluntary work and who is doing the telling.  Like most sites ours has a set of rules and regulations based on the Local Authority rules.  But anyone can get a copy and read them, so no-one can arbitrarily say "you can't do this or that", because people would immediately say "where is that in the rules".

Major works would be an LA matter anyway, but a little bit of group work is commonplace, like path maintenance, clearing a patch of bramble etc. One very generous plot holder dug another's plot when they were ill. Purely voluntary. How could that be against any rules?

Tee Gee:
We had an understanding with the council with some projects that plot holders wanted doing on the plots was that the plot holders would supply the labour and the council would fund any materials required.

The type of work that was covered by this arrangement was generally labour intensive and material costs were minimal. One example we did was refelt the leaking roof of our communal site hut.

Let's be clear this didn't happen often but in such situations the manager of the Councils allotments had the authority to use his discretion and authorise such an arrangement from his annual department funding rather than going cap in hand to the Finance department.

So in essence we worked WITH the council particularly when many of the plot holders worked in trades that carried out similar tasks in their everyday life.

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