Volunteers do not normally rank as "employees" or "workers" for employment law purposes provided they receive no more than reasonable expenses, subsistence and accommodation in return for their services. It follows that they are ineligible for many employment law rights (see Definitions and interpretation/employee ). However each case will turn on its own facts.

Volunteers working for no remuneration are specifially excluded from the right to the national minimum wage (see National Minimum Wage Act 1998 s.44). Their eligibility for other statutory employment law rights depends simply on whether or not they come within the definition of employee or worker (depending on the requirements of the relevant statute) - as a general rule they do not come within either definition, as noted above.

See also notes at Definitions and interpretation/intern and/or Definitions and interpretation/employee and/or Definitions and interpretation/worker .