Volunteers help restore Slovakia’s castles. (source: Sme)
Volunteering is clearly about individuals offering their energy, work and free time – for free – to help others. However, adoption of the Act on Sport, which also amended the Act on Volunteering violates the philosophy and the very definition of it, President of the Platform of Volunteering Centres, Alžbeta Frimmerová, told the SITA newswire.
The platform will therefore ask for an amendment to the law on volunteering after the general election, she said, adding that the new sports law added to the law on volunteering a part concerning the so-called institute of loss of time as a basis for financial compensation. According to the new wording, volunteers can be paid for their loss of time, i.e. for their volunteering activities. In this way, the amendment radically violates the basic principle of volunteering.
You join volunteering with the idea with the knowledge that you will not require compensation for your time, according to Frimmerová.
