Volunteering NZ is currently developing Employee Volunteering Health and Safety Guidelines with funding assistance from Mobil Oil New Zealand. Formalised employee volunteering has been rapidly growing in New Zealand in recent years. One indicator of this comes from projects organised by volunteer centres. In the 2006/07 year they arranged 147 projects involving 1491 employee volunteers and in 2007/08 arranged 188 projects with 2641 employees taking part.

In discussions with the Department of Labour about ACC coverage for volunteers, the question asked was whether employee volunteers who are on 'paid leave' when involved in employee volunteering project should be considered to be at work if injured resulting in an absence from work. This highlighted that there are special health and safety issues relating to employee volunteering projects and hence the need for special guidelines. These would need to cover the responsibilities of the employers, the employees and the host community organisations.

It is planned to print a limited number of the guidelines with them also being made available online through the VNZ website. The guidelines are expected to be published in the next couple of months.

Further information about the project could be accessed here.