Study on Volunteering in the European Union Final Report
In Belgium some policy instruments developed recently have therefore mentioned this issue. In the Charte Associative of February 2009 the importance of complementarities between public services and services provided by associations is clearly stated. In Italy, the use of contracts which allow local authorities to determine the characteristics that the organisation needs in order to deliver the service (e.g. an increase in the number of permanent staff) and/or the specific social needs the project should focus on increases the risk of service substitution. On the contrary, in countries such as Sweden or Germany, service substitution is not perceived as a risk. It is intended that the NGO sector in Sweden should complement, rather than replace, the public sector. One of the aims of the Agreement between the Swedish government, organisations in the social sphere and the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions, is to ensure a growth in the diversity of providers and suppliers. This is not considered to be a threat to the welfare state – the voluntary and nonprofit sector is seen as a resource to develop welfare rather than a way of cutting costs. The agreement therefore clarifies the role of voluntary players in the social sphere and enables the idea-based organisations to compete on equal terms. Job substitution
At the European Volunteer Centre’s General Assembly in 2007, participants raised concerns that volunteering might be used replace standard paid jobs – for example by using ‘cheaper’ jobseekers as a replacement for paid workers or through ‘hidden recruitment’ tactics, such as attracting volunteers by offering free training and employment if the training is successful82. Findings indicate that there was little evidence to suggest there is a risk that the inputs of volunteering are in part replacing employment in most Member States. In many Member States, the view is rather that volunteering can help to create employment. Job substitution has however been the source of debates in a number of countries, in particular in France, Finland and the UK. This issue of job substitution is the source of heated debates in France in particular. Bénévolat is generally perceived in France as a complement to paid jobs in associations. Negative aspects prescribed to the relationship between volunteering and work includes fears that - especially in social services volunteers could act as a ‘job killers’. Sometimes, boundaries between volunteering and precarious low paid jobs, are not so clear. The difficulty of identifying the differences between volunteering and precarious jobs is connected with how much payments linked to volunteering (such as reimbursement of costs) are accepted and normal in the respective countries. However there is little empirical evidence supporting the ‘job killer’ theory. On the contrary, the quantitative impact of being a bridge between non-work and paid work has been shown especially in the social, environment or cultural fields. Volunteers have played a major role in identifying needs and creating new jobs. Since 2002, some initiatives have been promoted to create jobs in the social economy, most of the time with public support. Volunteers have been pioneers in finding new areas to create new kinds of jobs. In the UK research highlighted concerns regarding the extensive involvement of volunteers in the delivery of public services that may lead to volunteers being used as cheap labour or substituting work considered to be the province of paid staff. Key issues relate to volunteers themselves being unhappy with the concept of volunteers doing what they considered to be paid jobs and also about the implications for volunteers and volunteering. There are also
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European Volunteer Centre (CEV) (2007) General Assembly “Volunteering as a route (back) to employment” Paris, France. Final Report.
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