VOLUNTEERS IN EMERGENCY RESPONSE: How a culture of ‘us and them’ can be created

When major emergencies and disasters occur, the first persons who normally appear at the scene are volunteers, which with the skills and local knowledge can play important roles by providing valuable assistance to the relief effort.

In major emergencies and disasters response, volunteers can be classified under three main categories: -

1. Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs).

Those from well-established local, regional or national NGOs, which have their own funding, structure, code of conduct and mandate.

2. Volunteers from the General Public.

Ordinary members of the public who offer their assistance, be it through an established in-country NGO or direct to the Government. In large jurisdictions, Governments tend to discourage this direct method, as they feel that there are NGO’s better placed than Government to channel this assistance and accepting direct assistance with tens of thousands of volunteers, would create a management overload at a time when their Human Resources departments are fully stretched or impacted by the emergency.

Also, direct engagement of volunteers who have no institutional backing can create managerial, coordination and response difficulties, in the event of inappropriate conduct and or under-performance, where the Government has no recourse. In a small jurisdiction like Gibraltar with approximately 1,000 volunteers, Government has introduced an efficient and effective validating, recording and management processes for volunteers in COVID-19, which to date has proved successful.

3. Public and Private Sector Volunteers.

These are the volunteers from the Public Sector who offer their services in a voluntary capacity. This is where problems and difficulties begin to emerge. Many Public Sector employees are quite happy, willing and able to go that ‘extra mile’, by way of longer working hours; changes in shift patterns; places of work and areas of expertise. However, there will be those who, for whatever reason, decline to offer their services as volunteers, and they are in their perfect right to do so.

This creates a culture of ‘us and them’ (those that did volunteer and those who didn’t) and will have a lasting and detrimental effect on the work force, leading to resentment, ill feeling and animosity in the work place, which will have a negative effect on inter and intra working relationships, productivity and healthy industrial relations.

Many of those who have not volunteered might thing that those who have, do so to gain kudos and unfair preference from management. The non-volunteers might feel discriminated against, when it comes to career advancement, appraisals and benefits.

Those that volunteer on the other hand, might argue that they are not covered by the Department’s Code of Conduct, as they are performing a voluntary duty and can ‘free-lance’ and down tools at will, and not observe the established emergency working practices and procedures.

In modern democracies provisions exist (in Gibraltar these come under the Civil Contingencies Act 2007 General Measures) in Emergency Legislation, for Governments to instruct person(s) to require, prohibit and/or collaborate, to such extent and in such manner during the emergency as may be specified in the legislation.

Most democracies will recede from implementing such directives, as they feel it’s an infringement on civil liberties. This Emergency Legislation brings all employees from the public and prescribed private sectors (essential for the maintenance of National Critical Infrastructure), under the same umbrella, making their participation in the response obligatory and not voluntarily, thus removing the ‘us and them’ syndrome and maintaining their respective Departmental Code of Conduct, whilst respecting their salaries and employees rights.

11-05-2020 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR