Volunteering magazine article, issue 110, Sept 2005
Matt Thompson, Volunteering Manager at the National Railway Museum in York, explains how to handle staff/volunteer relations during industrial disputes.
The heritage sector has always relied on volunteers. Many museums, galleries and stately homes would cease to function without their contribution. However, this relationship can be a challenging one to manage. As a Volunteering Manager in a large national museum with over 200 volunteers, it is important that the concerns and thoughts of the staff are taken into account. Without the guidance and skills of the paid staff, the work of many of the volunteers could lack the professional validation needed to meet the ever increasing, often legal, requirements set out by legislation such as the Freedom of Information Act and archival standards such as ISAD(G).
Since the post of Volunteering Manager was created in the museum around four years ago, the aim has been to develop volunteering in such a way that it can supplement and not supplant (to quote the museums volunteer policy) the work of paid staff. This is especially important at a time when many museums are feeling under pressure to increase visitor numbers and performance while being faced with budget cuts and, at times, very low morale. The thought that more is expected of the staff with less resources, coupled with the current trend towards increasing the number of volunteers within the sector has led, in some areas, to a somewhat cool attitude towards the development of volunteer programmes.
In February of this year, the trades unions involved with the museum balloted for industrial action, after what was seen to be an unsatisfactory pay offer. The question of volunteers supplanting when they should be supplementing was brought into sharp relief.
The museum has traditionally been highly unionised and one of the Volunteering Managers roles is to liaise with union representatives with regard to any new volunteer opportunities or specific issues.
I always feel that there should be a constant channel of both formal and informal communication between the unions and the volunteering programme. However, it quickly became apparent that it was important in this case to develop some form of protocol.
The main concern of the unions was that volunteers would be brought in to cover staff shortfalls in the museum when people took industrial action. This could be seen as a form of strike-breaking and could seriously damage the goodwill relationship between the volunteer programme and the unions. The immediate concern was that any attempt to draft in extra volunteers would have a negative effect, but the volunteers who were already on the roster for the day of the strike should be given the opportunity to attend in the same way as any other non-union staff member.
The volunteer policy in the museum states that volunteers will never be used to replace any, or any aspect of a, previously paid role but it was obvious that this would need restating as it was possible that managers might, quite innocently, contact volunteers to fill gaps or to find out if they were attending on the day of the action. This idea of contacting the volunteers before the action was key management were determined to stick to the agreed Volunteer Policy but were keen to inform them of the proposed action. This needed to be handled with sensitivity, as it was important to avoid accusations of lobbying.
On the day of the action, some volunteers attended and some did not. As there is no contractual obligation they were free to make their decision based on their own thoughts and feelings about the situation. Any industrial action can be disruptive and upsetting. Any repercussions can be serious and long lasting. Clear guidelines must be laid down with regard to volunteers, as much for the guidance of managers, as for the volunteers themselves.
The experience of dealing with this situation has shown that it is better to be pro-active rather than reactive and thus to have agreed guidelines in place before any possible industrial action and not to be making on the spot decisions that can have a serious negative impact within the workplace. The value of being in regular contact with union representatives and management cannot be over estimated and the need for clear communication to all sides is paramount.
Finally, even after the action, the relationship between volunteers and paid staff in the museum remains exceptional. The two groups work closely together to provide both a visitor experience that is internationally enjoyed and collections and archive material that is becoming more accessible month by month. This is something that is worth preserving and developing and it is through an awareness of the different issues involved and the production of clear guidelines and accepted protocols, in advance, that the negative impact of such events as industrial action can be minimised.
Volunteering magazine article, issue 112, Nov 2005
Correction to Issue 110
Volunteering magazine would like to print this correction with regard to "Volunteers and Strike Action", which appeared in Issue number 110 in September 2005.
Volunteering magazine has received a letter from Matt Thompson, Volunteering Manager, National Railway Museum.
"I was pleased to see the inclusion of the piece on Volunteers and Strike Action in the Volunteering no. 110. Unfortunately the editing changed the meaning of a key aspect of the article.
In paragraph two the published version read "Without the guidance and skills of the paid staff, the work of many of the volunteers could lack the professionalism needed to meet the requirements...". The text submitted by myself read "Without the guidance... ... the work of many of the volunteers could lack the professional validity needed...".
It may seem a small difference but it reflects that fact that many of our volunteers have skills/expertise and experience far beyond that of the paid staff - but not necessarily in museum work or compiling catalogues etc to the high and complex standards mentioned (eg. ISAD(G)). The professionalism of the volunteers work is rarely in question - they work to the highest possible standards. The role of the paid staff is to take this work, assess it and put it into the form that satisfies the museum's criteria. This is what I would term 'professional validation' and it highlights the excellent working relationship between staff and volunteers at the Museum.
The aim of the Museum's volunteer programme is to engage volunteers in real work but also to ensure that that work does not compromise any paid staff's career development or job satisfaction. Developing this relationship has taken many years of work and I am concerned that, should a volunteer feel that we question their professionalism, that relationship could be damaged."
Volunteering Magazine would like to apologise to Mr Thompson and his colleagues and volunteers at the museum for any distress caused by the editing of the article in issue 110.
Useful web links:
www.nrm.org.uk/
