Grievance and complaints, like the burden of any bureaucracy, could quickly start to over-formalise volunteering thus dampening personal creativity. This administrative approch is clearly not appropriate for every organisation. However, it is important to treat volunteers fairly and without procedures all problems will tend to be tackled on an ad hoc basis which would inexorably result in unequal treatment and will only ever heighten any pre existing people's sense of injustice or could create it.

It is now generally accepted that guidelines are required specifically for volunteers, if for no other reason than to avoid an over-formalisation of 'contracts' or 'agreements' between the organisation and its volunteers, which can lead to ambiguities in the status of volunteers.

There are many examples of volunteers clamming protection under employment law, and there is a general perception within committee levels that volunteers are never personally at fault for any damage caused to the organisation, ie any problem is in some way seen as a result of the fault of management instead of the ‘guilty party’. This is true of paid employment, as a direct result of employment law but this can not be applied to the voluntary sector for reasons that should be obvious later.

In the event of a complaint by or concerning a volunteer, all involved should always know there is someone - usually a Manager - who is beyond the direct reporting lines of any issue, with whom they can discuss matters of concern. In most circumstances, this manager will be able to resolve problems, by listening to the volunteer(s) concerned. All parties must know who is responsible and that matters in this context will be treated confidentially.

Dealing with Complaints:

If complaints cannot be resolved by discussion, then some suitable framework has be put in place to deal with such situations; the overall affect should be to create a buffer between the personal and private area of involvement. This process should be seen as a last resort, to be implemented only if supervision and support have failed to resolve the situations.

As with other areas of volunteer management, present guidelines recommend that each organisation should formulate their own complaints process surrounding volunteer involvement. A framework for dealing with complaints should include methods whereby there is:

1) A named person for dealing with complaints;

2) A clear policy known to all everyone;