Treating volunteers as ‘members of an association’ and the implications for English discrimination law

Abstract

Volunteers are not as a category expressly protected against discrimination under English law. This paper analyses the argument that volunteers ought to be protected by being treated as employees, with particular reference to X v Mid Sussex CAB. It considers the potential alternative argument that volunteers ought to be treated as service recipients. It concludes that neither argument is likely to succeed. However, volunteers might profitably contend that they are ‘members of associations’, and therefore entitled to protection under Part 7 of the Equality Act 2010.