We have, as inspiration, translated the agreement entered between the company, the mentor and the Business Development Center as well as parts of the insurance policy which covers our volunteers in case of potential compensation claim.
It should be emphasized that the translated as well as this note merely are for inspiration and should not be used as concrete basis for your contracts. Naturally it is crucial that the contract is based on the national legislation of the country in question.
About the Volunteer Counsellors Agreement
The purpose of the agreement is in particular:
- To reduce the counsellor’s responsibility as much as possible under Danish law
- To match expectations
- To visualize our core values which we have chosen to write into this agreement. The awareness of our values becomes more present in this way.
Our first versions of the contract were signed with the concerned company and the concerned company’s person authorized to sign. In the meantime, this proved inappropriate as the authorization to sign in case of bankruptcy descends to the bankruptcy trustee.
Therefore, we have chosen to write both the company as well as relevant contact persons into the agreement as we in many cases help or assist the bankrupted owner with getting (parts of) the activities bought from the bankruptcy estate to a new/other legal entity.
There has been made room for signing the termination of the agreement, however it is important to establish that the termination may happen in other ways than by signing the actual contract.
About the insurance policy:
Even though the Volunteer Counsellors Agreement to the greatest extent possible renounce the volunteer counsellor’s responsibility, the exemption of liability cannot be total. Therefore, we have chosen to take out an insurance which within certain financial boundaries covers potential claims again our volunteers. That the insurance does not cover the EW consultant who carry out screening etc. Is due to their insurance conditions fall on their employer (the respective Business Development Center in which they are employed).
Regarding the insurance there are especially the following to be aware of:
- Insure that the insured’s interest is formulated as widely as possible. It is important to have as demand from the beginning.
- We have in our policy a retroactive date per August 1st, 2008. Be aware that if a switch is made regarding insurance company there is a risk that the retroactive date becomes the time of new subscription. As liability can be caused by matters which occurred a while ago it is most appropriate to reassert the reactive date.
- Serious negligence is also covered.
- Notice, the Volunteer Counsellors Agreement with the individual company is NOT mentioned in the policy, as:
a) We do not want to negotiate with the insurance company when we change the Volunteer Counsellors Agreement.
b) We want to avoid the insurer is able to demand a signed agreement to accept that the relationship is covered by the insurance as there are cases where no contract is entered into or where the contract is not signed until later.
For the sake of clarity, it should be mentioned that we with more than 5000 companies through EWDK, have not been met with claim for damages at all. The yearly price for our insurance is € 7.517,-.