Can you be told to volunteer?

If she doesn't want to do this, then she should respectfully decline. "This is not what I volunteered for," kind of thing. It may be that they are trying to hang on to volunteers by creating something for her to do. Has she explained to anyone how she feels about it? That would be her first step I think.

Grandmabatty the people in question are not volunteers, they are furloughed staff.

Sorry, I misunderstood. I assumed your friend was an unpaid volunteer. If she has been furloughed, then she should be saying that she shouldn't be working at all. However if she is being paid then her employer has the right to redeploy her as necessary. It's a sticky one as if she refuses, they may pay her off entirely.

I assume she has a manager, so can she discuss it with them? Perhaps suggest the hours are reduced. I’m slightly biased as we’ve lost many of our libraries and next year our little local one will be run by volunteers only.

Perhaps the management set the wrong tone by using the term volunteer. Furloughed staff are being asked to temporarily fill other roles in lots of Local Authorities.

I have a friend who works in a Local Authority Housing Department and she has been temporarily redeployed to making ‘courtesy calls’ checking residents are ok. Another colleague from the Library Service was in a Local Service Centre working on food parcels for the ‘clinically vulnerable’.

I think most Job Descriptions these days have a catch all phrase about being required to undertake ‘other activities deemed reasonable’. Thus your employers are likely to be within their rights to temporarily allocate people to other roles, even if they are boring and lonely roles.

Is she still on furlough? If she is, she would be on a sticky wicket I think until she has worked the number of hours that she was at home with nothing to do when the council were paying her through the pandemic. So if she’s full time that would be one day per week for the whole of the pandemic she could be expected to work, about 6 weeks of full time work?

I'm confused too Lizbethann55. You say you and your friend were furloughed but then she was asked to volunteer. Volunteers aren't paid. She must be receiving pay under the furlough scheme. If she is asked to volunteer to work more than her contracted hours and she agrees, then she will not be paid for these extra hours. That's her choice. Furloughed employees have to be asked to agree with any changes employer want to do.

Are you still furloughed Lizbethann55? Are you still getting paid?

If your friend is still getting paid but asked to do a different job then she needs to look at her contract when she started working for the council. Is she on a fixed hours contract? Does it state what she is employed to do?

Furloughs can now be flexible with hours changing but this has to be agreed with the employee. As a council employee you will both be in UNISON. Perhaps they can give you and her some advice.

I know of someone who worked full time and was furloughed . They are now working part time but still receiving furloughed money for the hours not worked.

As a public sector worker, there are additional rules about being furloughed, due to how services are funded. What your council is doing with your colleague is wrong as they’re asking them to work, whilst claiming Governmental assistance for their salary. I’d be reporting your employer to the tax office.

What does the union say?

It is surely a matter for them.

Language wise you cannot be asked to volunteer, as doing so is voluntary, but obviously your place of employment is using volunteer instead of saying you can be told to do some other job than you usually would.

All she really can do is to say that the job is mind-numbingly boring and can she please do something else for the extra hours they now want her to work, which probably will be refused.