To help ensure all volunteers can enjoy a healthy, safe and risk-free environment, organisations have certain responsibilities, including making sure they have adequate insurance to cover the activities of volunteers.
Insurance can provide a level of protection for public liability, personal accident and financial losses to board and committee members and the loss of income for volunteers as a result of an injury.
Why insure?
Organisations are encouraged to have their own insurance-cover to make sure the organisation and its volunteers are adequately covered while undertaking their volunteering activities.
Volunteers are generally not entitled to workers compensation payments if they are injured. This could result in their regular income and medical expenses not being covered. Organisations involving volunteers should therefore have insurance to protect volunteers and others against the potential for financial loss that may be caused by an injury.
While the
Volunteer Protection Act 2001 gives legal protection from personal liability to volunteers doing voluntary work for an incorporated community organisation or government program, it does not cover additional matters such as personal injury.
To ensure protection for the organisation and volunteers in relation to personal injury, organisations may need to consider obtaining specific insurance-cover. This additional cover can provide benefits to volunteers following injury, disability or even death while carrying out duties for their organisation.
[top of page]
Types of insurance
There are a wide variety of insurance packages available to organisations. The main types of insurance that organisations most frequently purchase to provide protection to the organisation, volunteers and the community are:
- Personal accident insurance and/or income protection insurance – provides benefits to volunteers following accidental injury, disability or death while carrying out their work on behalf of the organisation
- Public liability insurance - protects organisations against third party claims for personal injury or property damage as a result of accidents or negligence by staff or volunteers
- Associations and officers liability insurance - insures an incorporated organisation’s committee members and office bearers for legal liability, including legal costs, where in the process of operating the organisation, they have committed a wrongful act.
Organisations can seek professional advice to make sure they are adequately protected by contacting their current insurance provider or a provider that specialises in volunteer or community organisation insurance. Individual policy rules and costs will vary between insurance companies.
Information about insurance and risk management for
corporate volunteers is provided by Volunteering Australia.
[top of page]
Buying Insurance
An organisation’s decision to buy insurance represents just one element of the risk management process. An insurance policy transfers the risk to the insurer. Risk management strategies such as safety protocols and training initiatives may help to reduce insurance costs by minimising claims.
An insurance broker or agent can offer advice on the type of insurance that will suit your organisation’s needs. Where an organisation needs to purchase a range of insurances and these are purchased from a single insurer, they should be able to offer a reduced premium.
If your organisation is unable to access group insurance through an affiliated association – eg peak association or national body, it would be worthwhile shopping around to compare the type of cover offered and costs.
Group insurance
Group insurance is a bulk-purchasing scheme designed to help not-for-profit organisations find affordable insurance cover for their volunteers and others.
Group insurance brings together organisations that do similar activities so that they can present themselves to an insurance broker as a group and reduce their premiums. Group insurance buying, organised through peak bodies, associations or brokers, has assisted many groups to get better, more affordable insurance cover.
More Information
On this site
Legal considerations for the volunteer sectorSet up a community organisationManaging a community organisationOther websites
Group insurance fact sheet - The Office for Volunteers
[top of page]