The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) has warned public service delivery charities to be wary of giving volunteers the same legal status as employees.

It is facing five potential law suits from volunteers with separate claims of unfair or constructive dismissal. All the cases involve former lifeboat crew members who were dismissed after complaints from other crew members that they were too difficult to work with.

Speaking in an interview for The Times, the charity’s chief executive, Andrew Freemantle, said that because there is no definition of the word “volunteer” in law that it was difficult to know how to defend the cases. The charity has called for clarity on the issue, particularly as it is Year of the Volunteer. “We cannot allow this blurring of the line between volunteers and employees to go unquestioned. If volunteers are considered the same as employees, where does that leave the voluntary ethos?” he said.

He added that due to the nature of the work it was not unusual for volunteers to be asked to leave. “If you are going out to see in a Force 10 gale in the dark, you are putting your life on the line and you have to have confidence in every member of the crew.”