2013/6 Volunteers without contracts are not protected by discrimination law (UK)
The Supreme Court has ruled that an unpaid Citizens Advice Bureau volunteer (‘X’), who did not have a contract, was not protected by the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (the ‘DDA’) or the Equal Treatment Framework Directive 2000/78/EC (the ‘Directive’). The Supreme Court refused to refer the matter to the European Court of Justice, on the grounds that the interpretation of the Directive was not open to ‘reasonable doubt’. The DDA was repealed on 1 October 2010 and replaced by the Equality Act 2010, but this contains substantially the same provisions.
UK Supreme Court, 2012-12-12