UK working on guidelines about intern wages

Interns Anonymous has a potential scoop that’s quite interesting: HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs – the British IRS, the Revenue Department) would be about to address directly internships as part of the wage regulations.

This is not about making unpaid internships illegal, or at least it does not seem to be. They are already illegal, if they do not meet certain criteria. But it may bring a clarity to the regulations that will make them harder to avoid.

Young, talented and working for free: the video

They had a great idea over at InternsAnonymous.co.uk: a series of interviews about internships.

It’s time to put a few faces on the issue, to make it more real and personal. Let’s hope there will be some more of these videos.

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.

UK Parliament urged to respect interns

A British political party has taken the side of interns:

Parliament should “set the standard for the rest of the nation” on the treatment of interns, Phil Willis has said.The Liberal Democrat MP’s comments came as around 100 interns, MPs and lobbyists gathered in Parliament on Monday night to demand an end to the abuse of “generation intern”.

This is good news.

David Willetts told the event: “I can sense this is the start of a movement, it feels like an uprising.”

Let’s hope so.

BBC calls for stories

The BBC is looking for testimonials from unpaid interns.

Are you doing or have you recently done unpaid work experience or an unpaid internship?

I am a researcher at the BBC currently looking at the issue in light of the credit crunch. I’m trying to get in contact with anyone who may have had a bad experience in this area. If this is you or someone you know, please contact me by email at: Nicola.Dowling@bbc.co.uk, on 0161 244 3931 or 07810 855 315.

Contact them directly if you fit the bill. It’s very nice to see the media pay attention to the issue.

Unfair Internships and the media

There are a few reasons why unfair internships are still so common: internships are transitional, lawmakers offer them, and, of course, the journalism industry is full of them. Gida Hammami covered the issue at EditorsWeblog.org recently:

The journalism industry is highlighted in the report as failing to meet acceptable standards of internships, most significantly in its use of interns as a cheap replacement for full-time staff members.

No wonder it’s so rare that such a widespread illegal practice is mentioned in the media. Too bad: media outlets could ask their free interns to cover the issue !

UK: The Eternal Intern? No thanks

There’s a lot of wisdom in the Guardian article from Rachel Bowen today:

“(…) my experience has shown that interning leads to nothing except more interning”.

This is one of the factors which should make the current system of interning unsustainable; young graduates from all walks of life cannot be expected to pay tens of thousands of pounds for an education which is supposed to open doors to great opportunities, only to then be told that what they actually need is experience.”

“What I am concerned about is that internships are simply seen as another hoop for already debt-ridden graduates to jump through (…)”

May you cover this issue more often, Rachel Bowen.

UK: Unfair internships as a barrier to social mobility

The British angle on unfair internships seems on average to be more focused on the equal opportunity angle. Working for free has a cost and can’t be afforded by people with a poorer background. Here is an example from an article on Channel 4:

He is effectively paying to work for an MP because he wants a job in a political think tank or as a parliamentary aide, but both demand experience. He can only do his internship because his parents are helping him pay his rent in London. “I’m lucky enough that my parents can help me out financing this thing, but someone from poorer background who doesn’t live in London – they just simply couldn’t afford to do this,” he said.

This is a very valid point and not one that we would dispute. It is not the main point that this blog is making though, as we simply state that a productive work should be paid and that exploitation in the labor market has been outlawed long ago and for good reasons.

The article quoted above does a fairly good job of exposing politicians who offer unfair internships themselves, explaining in part why this practice is allowed to go on for so long.

UK: I don’t feel sorry for interns

Is it just a provocation to drive traffic? Anyway, the Guardian’s Linsey Hanley is hammering on unpaid interns and reminding them that there are far worst people in the world. I say this is an excellent argument to serve to people calling the police for a robbery: “Don’t complain, it could have been worse!”

Internships are the surest way to avoid being exploited over the course of your working life.

Be exploited so that you’ll never be exploited? Go figure.

She gets very close to getting it, but no.

Without doubt, it’s an insult to graduates, who have worked hard no matter what their background, to have to work a year or two for free. But that’s not the point.

I’m afraid that is the point. This attempt to ignore the situation, to claim it is irrelevant does not excuse or erase the facts. Some people in a vulnerable segment of the workforce are being exploited because employers are taking advantage of their vulnerability. I do hope that most of them will move on to have a successful career, but it doesn’t justify pitting them against each other when they enter the labour market.

It has to be a ploy to drive traffic. And I fell for it!