Volunteering in Armenia

Armenia is reforming legislation regarding volunteering. The government has approved a bill according to which volunteers will work on contract and their work will be counted as experience in the relevant field.

The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs has already developed an electronic platform where volunteers and job offers can easily find each other.

“One of the main goals of this law is to support the formation of an active civil society and increase the role of social responsibility,” Deputy Minister Ruben Sargsyan said.

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According to the draft law on volunteer work, everyone who is 16 years old will be able to offer their services. If those who have not reached this age want to volunteer, organizations will need to obtain the consent of their parents or guardian.

State and non-profit structures – foundations, public organizations, unions – will be able to attract volunteers to their work. Profitable organizations will be able to attract volunteer employees in the event that only the state acts as the owner of the structure.

“One of the mandatory requirements for attracting volunteers is the signing of an agreement, which will indicate for what purpose and for how long they are involved,” Sargsyan said.

The law will not apply to volunteer structures created to protect the country.

The bill does not establish an upper age limit. Ruben Sargsyan notes that any structure that attracts volunteers is obliged to provide them with work corresponding to “their strengths and physical capabilities” and create the necessary working conditions.

Moreover, it is planned to remove age restrictions from the Labor Code in the near future.

The law provides for regulations and mechanisms that will allow students to gain work experience in the professional field in parallel with their studies.

Those who apply for volunteer work requiring professional skills will be required to provide organizations with documents confirming their competence in this field — diplomas, documents confirming special education.

The project provides for unified regulations for volunteering:

• clear rules for separating voluntary work from illegal work, which will also help reduce “shadow employment”, that is, the number of unregistered workers;
• the ability to quickly attract a large number of volunteers in emergency situations, including in the work of government agencies;
• obtaining professional experience as a result of voluntary work, which will also contribute to employment.

While earlier organizations that involve volunteers in their activities did not provide guarantees for reimbursement of expenses, after the adoption of the law this will be a mandatory condition.

Volunteer’s expenses for travel, accommodation, daily allowance and all expenses associated with this work are subject to compensation.

“Of course, a volunteer does this not for personal gain or income, but in order to be useful to society. But his rights must also be protected,” Sargsyan said.

According to Sargsyan there was no shortage of volunteers in Armenia. He recalled that during the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, during the 2020 war and in the post-war period, many people were actively doing volunteer work.

The work of citizens who showed good will went unnoticed due to a gap in the legislation. That is, their rights were not protected; they did not have, for example, guarantees for reimbursement of their costs.

“An attempt to adopt such a law was also made in 2006, 2010, 2015, 2017, but we did not reach the goal. Until now, we have not had a legal act that would solve the problems of volunteer movements and structures,” he said.