ABSTRACT
The great majority of Australia’s third sector organisations rely exclusively upon the voluntary labour of hundreds of thousands of Australians. These are the voluntary associations that provide a framework of opportunities for recreation or commitment in every corner of society. Most of the evidence of employment conditions in nonprofit organisations is anecdotal or conjectural. Research in the United States indicates that employees of nonprofit organisations are not as highly remunerated as employees of government or for-profit organisations doing similar work. A concern with values education is important to many third sector organisations. Many third sector organisations in the human services were begun by Catholic religious orders. The values orientation of many third sector organisations, their origins in voluntary associations and their perennial shortage of finance makes them prone to exploit their staff, by oversight if not deliberate intent. One area of human resource management that generally receives little attention despite its centrality to many organisations is the management of volunteers.
