Low pay and limited career prospects are making it difficult for community and voluntary (C&V) groups to attract and retain staff, a study has found.
The lack of job security and difficult working conditions in the sector are other problems highlighted in the study, to be published today. The community and voluntary sector employs more than 50,000 and has an annual turnover of €1.2 billion.
However, the research commissioned by the Equal at Work project highlights the extent to which ad-hoc standards of employment and working conditions apply in the sector.
Equal at Work is an EU project led by the Dublin Employment Pact. The study found staff in the community and voluntary sector tend to have standard contracts of employment. Renewal of the vast majority of these contracts is wholly dependent on organisations' securing funding each year.
"The main challenges in attracting and retaining staff cited by C&V groups were low pay, limited career and promotion prospects, insecure employment, poor non-pay benefits, short-term contracts and comparatively difficult working conditions," the study concluded. The sector does not exhibit equal overall terms, conditions and human resource practices to those applying in the public service.
"In general, C&V sector organisations do not have sufficient funding with which to pay for employment costs and human resource practices.
"This leads to prioritisation on the part of C&V organisations which acts to the detriment of human resource practices and staff/employee benefits."
A total of 76 organisations were surveyed for the study, which involved two separate pieces of research, one into human resource practices and the other into working conditions.
In terms of basic pay, non-pay employment benefits and human resource practices, staff in the community and voluntary sector are disadvantaged compared to workers in similar positions in the State sector, the study concluded.
It recommended that a platform of community and voluntary groups be established to address pay and working conditions, and to begin a dialogue with funders about the issue.
It called for minimum standards and protocols around employment conditions and human resource practices to be developed and adopted by community and voluntary bodies.
