Using Craigslist against unfair internships

Nice idea.

I will personally flag any and all companies seeking unpaid interns.

Fire at will!

Follow legal rules when hiring unpaid interns

The title of this article from TechRepublic is nothing new to this blog and shouldn’t surprise anyone who lives in a lawful society. Now, it may surprise people who live in countries that shall remain nameless.

Since we’ve covered the fact that the law does not allow for free labor a few times, here’s a selection of recommendations that on which we haven’t insisted yet.

Decide beforehand if the business has the time and personnel to closely supervise and mentor an unpaid intern.

Wait a second, some may say, an intern will take time and staff? Yes, and more than it will provide labor. An internship is a training that a company is offering, not free help that it is receiving. Now this:

When in doubt, businesses can avoid legal problems by paying interns at least minimum wage.

Isn’t it cool: minimum wage will get a company out of trouble! Quite cheap. But it’s really a minimum. If a company needs staff to do something productive that adds to the bottom line, why not offer a fair pay?

Using Facebook against unfair internships

There’s a Facebook group called “Interns Must Be Paid The Minimum Wage” started in the UK but that really applies to any country where unfair internships are prevalent, sometimes despite laws against them. There are some interesting debates going on. Their goal is to get the attention of the British Parliament and their rationale is sound:

It’s a basic principle that no career path should be closed, whatever our parents’ backgrounds. It is an even more basic principle that people doing work should be paid for it.

And Phil Willis, British Member of Parliament, also put together his own Facebook group, Campaign for Fair Parliamentary Internships, to support his campaign in favor of fair internships at Westminster, for politicians should set an example (following the law would already be a nice first step). It’s encouraging that he seems to be really serious about this issue.

Parliament of all places should be able to set the example, and be accessible to all, regardless of financial background.

Join these groups if you agree with them and, even if you don’t, join the debate.

UK: FAQ about Internships and Minimum Wage

Great document put together by the UK Department for Business Innovation & Skills: Internships and National Minimum Wage – Frequently Asked Questions. The answers do not surprise us the slightest.

Does it matter what I call the internship/job? Whether someone is entitled to the national minimum wage depends on the actual circumstances of the arrangement, not the title given to the job or the role.

As they say in the UK: What’s in a name?

They make an interesting distinction between “worker” and “volunteer”.

If you have a contract of employment then you are a worker. (…) A volunteer does not have any form of contract of employment or contract to perform work or provide services.

And before any employer think they have found the loophole, note that “the contract does not need to be written”.

This is an argument that always puzzle me: interns are paid in work experience. Who doesn’t gain work experience through their job? How does that cancel the need to pay an employee? The BIS does not tiptoe around the issue when asked whether someone who is doing work experience needs to be paid:

Someone who enters into an agreement or contract to work for experience will be a “worker” for national minimum wage purposes and entitled to be paid the national minimum wage in the normal way, unless they are a genuine volunteer or fall into one of the groups who are exempt.

And very importantly, they provide guidance on how to report an unfair internship in the UK:

If someone thinks they are a “worker” and not being paid the national minimum wage, they can ring the Pay and Work Rights Helpline on 0800 917 2368 (Text phone 0800 121 4042). The Helpline is open from 8 am to 8 pm (Monday to Friday) and 9am to 1pm on Saturdays.

Please do.

Portraits of interns

Structurally recyclable, basically disposable is the project of Elisabetta Lombardo, herself a former intern now based in Berlin. She plans to photograph interns and former interns to raise awareness about this status.

The message I want to convey with my work is the feeling of “modularity”, “interchangeability” that this system of employment gives us.

You too can take part in the project as Elisabetta is calling for interns or former European interns willing to be photographed.

If you are or have recently been an intern, are critical of this form of “employment”, even when you have liked your internship, and you want to share your experience, you can contact me directly or through the website http://www.structurally-recyclable.com. I will of course be doing the traveling to you.

Unfair internships need all the attention they can get and this is quite an interesting way to go about it.

UK: An inquiry into unfair internships

Could it be happening?!

A government watchdog is to investigate whether companies are exploiting thousands of graduates by employing them on unpaid, long-term internships during the recession, the Guardian has learned.

And even politicians, who make and break the rule, are to be investigated.

A Guardian inquiry has also discovered that MPs could be breaking the rules. Ministers have estimated that unpaid interns work up to 18,000 hours a week inside parliament, a saving of more than £5m a year on the national minimum wage. MPs are each given a staffing allowance of £104,000pa.

This practice is looked at more closely in a separate article. It states the obvious:

However, guidance provided to MPs states that “interns who are obliged to do work under the control of the member or member’s representative are likely to be workers under the minimum wage legislation and so should be paid the minimum wage.”

This interest for unfair internships from a regulatory body is more than welcome. Those who think that it’s ok just because it’s widespread may be in for a surprise. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We’ll follow the inquiry of the Low Pay Commission.

The SWEAT Team

Overt at The Watercooler, a forum on the British film industry, there’s an entire section for posts on unpaid jobs – whether they are called internships or else. The debate is well-informed and heated at times. The industry is hit hard there as much as anywhere else and people who want to enter the industry are getting frustrated, with good reasons.

There’s an informative thread answering some common question about regulations, volunteers and competition.

The issue is that many Film and TV companies are breaking the law with regard to not paying young people the National Minimum Wage where it is due. They will take on someone as a “runner” or “work experience” (using the claim that it is “good for your CV” or “good experience”) and then not pay them. This is illegal. Every worker (with a few minor exceptions) is entitled to be paid at least the National Minimum Wage for every hour they work.

It’s worth noting that SWEAT stands for “Stop Working Experience Abuse Today”. Have a look at the list of successes that they claim.

Better for the company?

In “The Ethicist” column of the New York Times, Roger Randy Cohen, had a look at “coffee run interns“. His first sentence is illuminating:

If only “better for the company” were synonymous with “ethical,” I would have an easier job.

Some employers try to justify hiring an intern under unfair conditions because it will be good for their company, because they couldn’t afford the staff otherwise. That’s called free labor and it’s obviously illegal. Let it be clear: an intern is there for its own benefit and not for that of the company. That is why he is un(der)paid. If the company benefits, pay him and call him an employee.

This is also a good opportunity to clarify the intent of this blog. Some people feel that internships are unfair because they involve menial tasks and are boring. While this is certainly a concern, the main issue that this blog seeks to address is those internships where the work is actually very relevant, but where the employee is not paid or below the legal wage. This practice goes unchecked because the employees are called interns. That doesn’t make it fair or legal.

Interns Anonymous

There’s a new blog in town and we can only love it: Interns Anonymous is “a forum for interns to share their experiences and discuss the ethics of unpaid employment”, focused on the United Kingdom.

This is worth not only an entry, but also a seat in the blogroll. Now that we have such a thing, please feel free dear readers to direct our attention to any like-minded blog or website and we’ll be happy to add it.

Twitter.com/exintern

With such a young and hip target audience (I’m talking about employers), this blog had to have a twitter account. What took so long? I anticipate that it will be used for shorter updates, especially when I don’t have the time to write a full entry for the blog.  It’s also a nice way to get in touch and monitor the web of unfair internships. Feel free to get in touch.