Not the best time to make this kind of error.
The Cronulla Sharks are in a bit of hot water at the moment as they’ve recently listed a position with the club that many have deemed inappropriate.The role itself isn’t the problem, but it’s capacity and compensation absolutely are.
The club put up an advertisement for an NRLW Assistant Physiotherapist with the club, only that it was listed as a volunteer position. The job description solidifies this point by stating before the role description “The role is an honorarium role that will be required to…”. For those that don’t know, an honorarium role simply means a professional providing a valuable service, but is not given any wage or salary. That said, it does outline in the ATO that:
An honorarium is either:
- an honorary reward for voluntary services, or
- a fee for professional services voluntarily performed.
An honorarium may be paid in money or as property.
So there is potential there was an intention to pay in some capacity, but is still titled a volunteer position. Here’s the job posting.
It also states that the required individual NEEDS to have a degree in Sports Medicine or Physiology, which makes sense. Physios have to be qualified to work, but if they need a degree to do a job it should absolutely be common sense to pay that person.
The Cronulla Sharks have come out and said that this was an error and have apologised for this mistake. Dino Mezzatesta, Cronulla Sharks CEO, said this position was always intended to be paid employment and was accidentally tagged as volunteer. Which honestly I really hope it is the case that this was an accident, but when the role description starts with “The role in an honorarium role” I have my doubts that it wasn’t.
Additionally, The Australian Physiotherapy Association on the topic, calling out the club and informing the public that this is unacceptable and they will be writing to the club. Though the line “The advertisement has recently been amended to include an honorarium” seems to imply that originally this volunteer position was advertised without any compensation listed at all.
The topic of women’s sport has been a hot one the last few years. With the rise of the Matilda’s, the AFLW gaining more viewers, and The Australian Women’s cricket team being recognised more and more for their dominating side. Women’s sport are slowly starting to gain more foot traffic and more attention, but sadly it isn’t all positive and when things like this happen it only hurts them more.
Between the growing cost of living crisis, the ever competitive and highly sought after roles in sports, and the ongoing discussion about the gender pay gap. The idea that we’re now expecting trained and fully qualified professionals to work for free, doing more than full-time hours, all because its a highly sought after role should be beyond insulting to any individual. To any business as well that knows that these kind of roles that are highly desired and require that much work with a high return for the company should absolutely know better and stop using the threat of “well a thousand other people want your job so be grateful you’re paid at all”.
Overall, women’s sport is one we should all be celebrating its growth, but this needs to come with the expectation that individuals both playing and working behind the scenes need to be compensated appropriately for their time and their work. Something that sadly needs to be said. Taking gender out of the discussion I wouldn’t expect to see anyone who works in the public service (or any other field for that matter) to be asked to work as a volunteer, for 40+ hours a week, whilst also demanding that they need a bachelors degree in political science.
Would you go to university for 4+ years to then work for free?
Would you do an apprenticeship to be a sparky but then get told the expectation is your first year would be unpaid?
Would you, dear reader, ever work for free?
