What are the OHS obligations a non-profit has in respect to its volunteers? An overview of the challenges and opportunities.

Volunteering is a way for individuals to contribute to civil society, learn new skills, and hang out with cool people. For the small non-profit (SNP), a volunteer gets the job done for the price of a t-shirt or an annual thank you lunch.

It May Cost You More than Lunch!

Wait a minute, the costs to engage volunteers is higher than just a lunch. There are legal, financial, and reputational risk for the board of a volunteer organization. Alberta is unique in Canada in that they have explicitly included volunteers under its Occupational Health and Safety legislation with reforms introduced in 2018 [1].

What Could Go Wrong? How about civil-law suits or (quasi) criminal prosecution for health and safety violations. Fortunately, there are very few reported incidents of a volunteer being injured (or worse), but they do happen. Fines can easily be in the six figures and law suits could wipe out the life savings of a board member and start a multi-year nightmare.

Insurance, Sympathetic Courts, and Legislation. Insurance for the board members and the organization can help to mitigate the financial risks – but only if negligence is not proven. A scan of the literature suggests that courts are generally sympathetic toward non-profits when considering verdicts or awarding damages. Once again, don’t count on this, particularly for negligence. Finally, Alberta has legislation, the Freedom to Care Act, which protects volunteers IF they have been provided suitable training AND have acted in good faith [2].

Beyond the Dire, What Non-Profits Need to Know

In Alberta, a volunteer is considered an employee, for the purposes of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS), if they meet these three requirements [2]:

1. the organization requests the volunteer’s participation to perform work for the organization;
2. the organization accepts volunteers to do the work (informally or formally); and
3. the volunteer performs or takes part in the work.

Low Bar

Imagine a SNP wanting to clean-up a local river bank. It posts an ad in the local Facebook community page (requests participation), has an online form to select what time to start and where to meet (accepts volunteers), and the volunteer shows up and fills a bag or two (performs work).

An uninformed board may not even realize that the Facebook ad and Google sign up form has created risk. Part of this realization is to understand the parameters of the legislation such as the 20-Volunteer-Threshold.

Something About Twenty-Something

Alberta has a 20 worker threshold in respect to OHS which carries over into the non-profit world. For example, a non-profit organization must have a health and safety program if it has 20 or more regularly employed workers. Volunteers are counted as “regularly employed workers” for the purpose of determining whether a health and safety program is needed. [4]

What is not clear in the above wording is how to count the 20 volunteers. Is it the 3 volunteers who decide to organize the river cleanup note above, is it the 16 individuals who show up and do the work? How about the other 10 individuals who signed up but did not perform the activity? Technically they are not a volunteer per the definition but how would the organizers know they are going to sleep in that morning?

OHS Program Flexibility: Good and Bad News

The good news is that OHS legislation is not prescriptive in how an OHS program is designed. It can be tailored to an organization’s situation. A standard health and safety program elements may include [5]:

Brainers. For the 3 volunteers who wanted to clean-up the river, which of the above elements will go into their OHS plan. Some are no-brainers (e.g. the first three bolded items). Some are definite maybe’s (italicized items), and the rest may be overkill.

Write or Give Up? Writing an OHS assessment is a good idea because it forces the 3-volunteers to consider the risk they are taking on. Of course, it may also be too daunting, and they abandon the initiative.

OHS and the Accountant

Safety and the Accountant. Hopefully the three fictional volunteers don’t give up on their river cleanup, but one would be sympathetic if they did. Fortunately, one of the three was a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA).

She reviewed the material available from the Alberta Government, developed a 2-page OHS Program, and trained the trainer for the big cleanup. This included having a sign in/out sheet, briefing volunteers on the emergency procedures, and discussing what to do about potentially hazardous litter (e.g. needles, chemicals, etc.).

The river cleanup was a great success and the volunteers appreciated the concern shown to them by the organizers. Many of the volunteers want to take an active role at next years cleanup!

CPA’s and Their OHS Alignment. Accountants vary widely but their training makes them ideal to manage the OHS requirements/risks within the organizations they are involved. in. For example, all accountants are knowledgeable about: 1. Applying standards, 2. Risk Management, 3. Internal Controls, and 4. Communicating Results. While, there is an entire profession dedicated to OHS, accountants can help a SNP implement ‘Just Enough OHS’.

But how can accountants help? This is the subject of the next blog and a conference proposal: OHS, SNP, and HELP!

Notes, References, and Further Reading

1. Carnevale, Susan. “Effectively Managing OHS Risks for Volunteers and the Organizations They Serve.” Mathews Dinsdale & Clark LLP, January 3, 2023. https://mathewsdinsdale.com/effectively-managing-ohs-risks-for-volunteers-and-the-organizations-they-serve/.
2. “Freedom to Care – Managing Your Volunteers | Alberta.Ca.” Accessed September 14, 2023. https://www.alberta.ca/freedom-to-care-managing-your-volunteers.
3. “Are Students and Volunteers Workers? : Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Information for Employers and Nonprofit Agencies – Open Government.” Accessed September 14, 2023. https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/9781460142431. Download a local copy.
4. OHS Resources. “Occupational Health and Safety and the Non-Profit Sector.” Accessed September 15, 2023. https://ohs-pubstore.labour.alberta.ca/li053.
5. OHS Resources. “Health and Safety Programs.” Accessed September 15, 2023. https://ohs-pubstore.labour.alberta.ca/li042.