Organise Now! Volunteer Agreement

In order to make sure that volunteers are absolutely clear as to what they are signing up for, and those using our website are clear as to the remit of volunteers, we have drawn up this short agreement detailing the main principles governing the relationship between Organise Now! and its volunteers. If you want to become a Volunteer, you will need to agree to abide by the agreement below, our privacy statement, organising approach (as outlined in the volunteer briefing guide), and any other policies affecting volunteers.

Once we receive your response to the form here you are able to get started.

Please note that this is a voluntary agreement only and does not constitute a contract of employment.

We will keep this form on record, complying with the statute of limitations.

Thank you for volunteering

A huge thank you for volunteering to be part of our new exciting organising project, which cannot work without you.

The project uses a distributed model to scale up resources for organising. Through our website sign up form workers who want support and advice can get it within 72 hours of completion.

We are now going into an exciting moment with national strikes back on the agenda and renewed militancy in unions. These combine to offer a rare opportunity to start organising in new parts of the economy.

That is why Organise Now! matters in the current moment: we want to take that energy into new workplaces, but also connect to the wider union movement. This is about giving workers the confidence and resources to fight, but also for existing organisers to learn from and be inspired by these new struggles.

Data Handling

When volunteering with the Organise Now! project, you’re likely to come across a lot of personal data. One of the project's legal responsibilities is to keep personal data confidential. Trade union membership (including activity) is classified as “special category” data, meaning there is an extra burden on our project to keep it hidden, as well as other personal information like names, phone numbers and addresses. Organise Now! volunteers will need to have read and understood this agreement and will adhere to the policies within them.

Remit and role in Organise Now! Project

Your close contact with workers that have asked for help in organising means that you are in a position of responsibility and power. This will mean your advice will carry be influential with the workers you are speaking to. As such we ask that all our volunteers follow the steps we have outlined in our training and accompanying guide here.

This is especially important when discussing union membership, and what unions those workers should join, as our guide states your approach should be:

“When speaking about which union to be a part of it is important to ask the worker if there are unions active, and encourage them to join the most active.

If there is no union at the workplace, we suggest using this search here: https://www.tuc.org.uk/joinunion ”

When making notes of the calls you are involved in, we ask you record these as outlined in the volunteer guide. This means utilising our systems to record this information and not saving or hosting these on any personal systems or devices.

Details of the role of our volunteers is outlined in full within our volunteer briefing guide here.

Ending your voluntary relationship with Organise Now!

As a volunteer, Organise Now! recognises that your time and support are freely given and that you are free to stop volunteering at any time. Likewise, you understand that Organise Now! has the right to decide who to accept as volunteers and to end any volunteer role if it is no longer considered to be in the project’s best interests.

If you stop volunteering for Organise Now! We ask that you delete all emails that contain personal information of the workers you have been speaking to.

Summary

You must uphold the best standards of behaviour at all times, especially when speaking to workers who have contacted Organise Now!

By signing this agreement, you agree to abide by the Organise Now! training guide and other relevant policies, and not to bring the project into disrepute. You are also declaring that you are aware that your role as a volunteer is to assist workers in their organising and to follow the project’s guidance and policies.

Failure to uphold any aspect of this agreement may result in the Organise Now! ceasing to work with you.