Le bénévole associatif, en quête de son identité

Volunteering is defined on the basis of three criteria. The volunteer works without pay, the volunteer can freely decide whether or not to do the work, and the volunteer makes a conscious choice not to get paid. Volunteering has many facets. According to the 1901 law, when the volunteer is a member of the association, the volunteer’s work must be “permanent”. The nature of this work varies. It may entail participating in the running of the association, or some form of “internal” or “external” support. The volunteer may also not be a member of the association and may act in various ways, ranging from individual support in the field, secondment, and voluntary service (volunteer work for international solidarity and community service) to types of semiconstrained volunteering “by necessity” that draw upon a fee or wage in compensation. In view of such complexity, the author proposes two clarifications concerning the boundary between volunteer and paid employment, on one hand, and the issue of pay, on the other.