Employment Bill [HL]

Perhaps I may allay the fears of my noble friends Lord Wedderburn and Lord Borrie by making the following distinction. As noble Lords know, Section 44(1)(b) of the NMWA states that a voluntary organisation can provide accommodation directly for the voluntary worker. That means not only that the young persons to whom my noble friend rightly referred—it would help society if many more younger people got into the world of voluntary work—have a roof over their head which would not fall foul of the new clause, which is excellent, but that they would not have to make the up-front payment and find the dosh to pay an advance on rent, which is no bad thing. If that voluntary worker was not in directly provided accommodation and had to attend a conference, for instance, or had to go away from their locality of normal work, obviously any attendant hotel costs or other accommodation expenses would be reimbursed. Although they might not necessarily be caught for the purposes of other legislation, they would be caught by this clause. We do not consider the reimbursement of enabling expenses to extend to the cost of rent per se because jobs should not emerge in the voluntary sector which could attract the vulnerable by offering significant remuneration or what is seen as a benefit and leave them in a position that is more than neutral. If their situation is enhanced, other sectors in society will ask why they are getting something different from anybody else. The clause is not trying to inhibit the young especially from getting into the world of voluntary work—quite the opposite: it is trying to ensure that we achieve a neutral position for those people vis-à-vis their employer and not bring even more legislation down on their heads.