Many community organisations will have resources that can be of used in an emergency. All offers of voluntary assistance will be referred to Victoria’s Volunteering Portal
Volunteers in the area of Personal Support will be coordinated by the designated lead agency, who will manage their deployment and issues like appropriate training and checks, for example Police Checks, Working with Children Checks etc.
The Act makes provision for compensation, under normal WorkCover arrangements, for volunteer emergency workers who suffer personal injury or death while engaging in, training for, standing by to perform, or travelling to or from, duties performed for agencies under the response plan or the recovery plan.
Volunteers covered are those who are members of voluntary organizations which do not have statutory compensation schemes, and cover also applies to those people who, on a casual basis, assist an agency under the response plan or the recovery plan to deal with an emergency. Compensation for loss of or damage to property is also provided for.
The Act creates the offence of obstructing an emergency worker (s. 36), and also gives volunteer emergency workers (the same group entitled to the compensation provisions) legal immunity in cases of loss or injury sustained by others, except in cases of their wilful default or negligence (s. 37).
6.31 Health and Medical
6.33 Transport and Engineering
