The president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has defended on Tuesday her new Young Volunteer Corps against criticism from associations in the sector, including the Spanish Volunteer Platform, which insist on its illegality for violating regional and state regulations. The sector, which was not consulted for the project, has the support of the left-wing opposition, the Youth Council of the Community of Madrid and jurists who warn that administrations are prohibited from resorting to free work to fulfill their obligations as well as amortizing jobs through volunteers. The volunteers, between 14 and 30 years old, would be recruited by the technicians who manage the regional youth card and would be sent to homes and residences of the elderly or disabled, as well as to soup kitchens.
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The Government of Ayuso creates an "illegal" volunteer corps, according to social associations that criticize the use of free labor
Ayuso gave his response to critics in a tweet on Tuesday in which he responded to the article in this newspaper a day earlier: "This is not correct," he said on the social network X (formerly Twitter). "It is not illegal because the regional law does not limit volunteer work to entities in the sector. And it does not replace in any case the work they do, it is complementary. Encouraging volunteerism is a right and a duty of the CM government." For now, few more details are known about the Youth Volunteer Corps, which was presented on Friday by the Minister of Social Policies, Ana Dávila, during a meeting with journalists at the headquarters of her department. A spokesman for Davila stresses that the young people would limit themselves to accompaniment.
This is not correct. It is not illegal because the regional law does not limit volunteer work to entities in the sector.
And it does not replace in any case the work they do, it is complementary.
Encouraging volunteerism is a right and a duty of the CM government....
— Isabel Díaz Ayuso (@IdiazAyuso) October 3, 2023
Volunteering in Madrid is regulated by two regulations, one regional, from February 2015, and another state, from October of that same year. The state law is clear regarding the prohibition of creating volunteer corps within the administration, a red line that guided the drafting work, according to the jurist who coordinated that task, Pablo Benlloch. That law was promoted by the Government of former President Mariano Rajoy, which sought to update the existing norm, of 1996.
Benlloch says administrations have an obligation to manage public services that they cannot delegate to third parties. "Another thing is that by concerts or agreements they reach an agreement with social entities, but in no way can you act like those entities," he adds.
Benlloch explains that the Madrid law is more ambiguous because it does give that ability to the public sector, but in its article 13.2 it imposes a limit that Benlloch believes that the Community of Madrid will exceed with its project: that volunteers do not assume public functions or obligations of the Administration. For example, he sees problematic the limits between the work of occupational therapists or psychologists in a residence and that of young volunteers. For this reason, he believes that the Madrid project is illegal, and points out that it already has a recent precedent: "This already happened during the pandemic, when the Community of Madrid tried to recruit social work students to collaborate in the residences."
When the Madrid Assembly dominated by the PP approved the autonomic norm in February 2015, the popular ones were in favor of preventing volunteering from entering the public administration. The limit of article 13.2 was proposed by the then deputy of Union Progress and Democracy Alberto Reyero and then the deputy of the popular group in the Assembly Ana Camins considered it necessary. "We understand that it contributes to the delimitation of volunteering in public services and safeguards the nature of the Administration's activity," said Camins.
Another jurist who agrees with this opinion is Eduardo Rojo, professor of Labor Law at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. "Administrations must provide their services with their own staff. They should maximize volunteering, but that does not mean that social service activities are carried out by volunteers," he adds.
"From what I know of the world of politics, I have the feeling that this wrong project is the initiative of a counselor who has arrived at a new department with good will, although another less good interpretation is that they want to save economic costs," adds Rojo.
Outrage in the sector
The project has outraged the sector of associations, which is not convinced by Ayuso's explanation. This Tuesday the Youth Council of the Community of Madrid, a platform that brings together 40 entities, joined the criticism. "We show our concern about the use of volunteers from institutions," he published in X. "They should never replace jobs and their work should be complementary."
Another platform that worries the project is Fevocam, the federation of volunteer entities in Madrid, which has requested an urgent meeting with the counselor on Tuesday. "We are the ones who do volunteering best and it is not a function of the administrations to manage volunteer projects," says its president, Alfonso Fajardo.
More Madrid and PSOE will ask for explanations to the counselor Dávila on Monday when she must appear in the Youth Commission of the Assembly. The two groups criticize the forms and content of the project. They protest that the sector has not been taken into account, doubt the legality of the measure and distrust the aims of the Ayuso Government.
Alodia Pérez, deputy of Más Madrid, censures the president for "lax interpretations of volunteer legislation."
"Stop looking for magic solutions at zero cost, and at the expense of professionals, not only of social services, but also of volunteer management. We expect a rectification of the government in its plan, and that they listen to the entities that leave their skin for a better situation of the care of the most vulnerable in the region, "he adds.
The PSOE's spokeswoman for social affairs in the Assembly, Lorena Morales, believes that the PP is taking another step in its charitable model for social services. "We demand a model that endows rights and true social justice so that there is equality. And that goes through investment and public policies. Not by handing everything over to the private sector without control and resorting to volunteering to save professionals."
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