• artyom@piefed.social
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    7 hours ago

    I mean I don’t know what the implications of this are so I’m not sure what the problem is. What’s to stop an employer from hiring someone, paying them a few bucks an hour and calling them “volunteers”?

    The bigger issue is that that’s simply not what a “volunteer” is, by definition.

    • muppeth@scribe.disroot.org
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      1 hour ago

      What’s to stop an employer from hiring someone, paying them a few bucks an hour and calling them “volunteers”?

      Because most likely would not find volunteers that are ok being paid approx. 170euro a month. Also I think this setting is only applicable to foundations and associations.

        • muppeth@scribe.disroot.org
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          1 hour ago

          Yes and that’s why volunteer fees are nowhere near minimum wage. It’s basically a way to compensate all sort of volunteers helping out non-profits. IMO it’s quite a good system and more of a symbolic then a real pay.

    • ITGuyLevi@programming.dev
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      2 hours ago

      I’m kind of with you on this, volunteer has always been something done of a persons own volition without recieving compensation. Even when someone is holding a sign saying “will work for food” they are trying to barter, not voluneer for something.

      I think as I get older I just get less willing to accept new uses for existing words. I grew up without a lot of social interaction so I may just not fully understand, or maybe it’s just something that was lost in translation.

      • artyom@piefed.social
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        1 hour ago

        Mostly because when someone is trying to use an existing word to mean something new, they are usually trying to manipulate, weaponize, or intentionally conflate it with something else to give people the wrong idea.

        As a (unpaid) volunteer of my local mountain bike club, we have to spend a lot of time reeducating the public and politicians that no, slapping pedals on an electric motorcycle does not make it an “ebike”, because that’s what these companies have intentionally convinced them of. That is a device that has a legal classification that includes a 750w/28MPH limit.