$5 per hour “volunteers”

In our large, self managed, SP we have a reactive “volunteers will get job done” approach to doing, or fixing, things instead of a pro-active approach to the OCs duty to maintain and repair.

Currently at the heart of the “volunteers will get the job done” mantra is a system called work levies.

Here is how it works. Certain people (generally the EC) approve certain work around the SP as being eligible for work levies, it is generally things people on the EC want done for their own benefit or to make them look like good management.

A person who does the work (volunteers?) has the work recorded in a log and then at the next AGM the log book with all the work done by all the different people is presented and the AGM passes a motion to reward/pay these people $5 per hour for every hour of work levies activity they have done, up to a certain amount. I believe it is currently $300 for some and $600 for others.
The people on the higher level of reward are the coordinators; they just delegate tasks but get double for their trouble; these are the self important people.

It isn’t a great system if one is old or does not live here and owns a vacant unit. It is designed to benifit a certain element within the SP.

The “volunteers” do not actually get the money but they get a levy reduction by whatever amount they have “earned” as work levies. The work levies can be transferred to another unit if one person exceeds the limit. Non-owners, renters, anyone can accumulate work levies and give it to an owner.

So for example; if the EC approves some activity and Joe Blogs does 20 hours of that activity , Joe then gets his levy reduced for the following year by $100 if the AGM approves of the work levy motion; which the AGM does. The reduction is paid for by the owners through the levy.

The whole scheme has seen a lot of the older genuine volunteers refuse to participate in it and so the work levy scheme operates for the benefit of only a few but those few have the numbers to see AGMs pass motions and that they control the determining of what gets approved as a work levies activity.
Prior to 2006 everything was done by volunteers without any question of wanting reward, since then the work levies scheme has been pushed by an influential element and less gets done that benefits the OC as a whole but the influential element now get rewarded for doing essentially what benefits them or makes them look good.

I will not go into the job for the boys nature of the work levies but I will ask does this sound even remotely legal?

I feel there are insurance issues given the volunteers are not contract workers or real volunteers so neither the workers comp policy or volunteer workers insurance would cover these people in the event of an accident; am i right in that thinking?

I also feel there are some issue as far as industrial relations go. $5 per hour is what you pay the kids to rake the lawn; it is not what you pay adults to do real work. Are there any IR laws being broken by the work levies scheme?

I presented some information to last years AGM but the AGM passed the motion to reward everyone and the scheme continues this year. The dominant clique in this OC is impossible to talk to and so this is a matter that would need to go to CTTT.

I did submit that the levy is determined by the budgets and that it was not right to give people a levy reduction. I argued that if the AGM wants to pay these people then pay them and let them determine if they want to pay it off their levy. Currently we have an annual levy determined by both the budget and by ones work levies hours. It is not something i can find approval for in the SSMA.

I’m interested in any comments and what arguements and legislation would support a case to bring an end to this apparently bogus scheme.
All feedback on this matter will be much appreciated.