Recently, internships have been painted in a rather negative light in the media, with employment law solicitors and campaigners claiming that they are exploitative and in some cases, illegal. Employment law solicitors might take the moral high ground and call it exploitation, but often times, the interns themselves are happy to work on an unpaid basis, calling it experience. So which is it?
Some industries tend to use interns more than others. The fashion industry is guilty as charged. In the press recently, former fashion interns have claimed they were made to work twelve hour days, and longer, for months on end, with no offer of a paid job afterwards. Indeed, some interns claim they have worked for free in fashion houses where they have outnumbered the paid staff. This shows that too many companies in many industries have begun to rely on the intern for unpaid work.
Employment law solicitors point to minimum wage rules, which suggest that companies using interns may well be acting unlawfully by failing to pay interns. They claim that merely calling somebody an intern does not mean a company doesn’t have to pay them. If a person is engaged on a regular basis for an extended period of time, doing work that is core to the company then they should be considered an employee and paid accordingly. Some employment law solicitors have dealt with cases of disgruntled former interns who were not paid and have won them backdated pay at the minimum wage. Sadly, these cases have failed to set the precedent that was hoped and the situation has barely changed.
Furthermore, campaigners point out that internships are actually damaging for graduate employment. As more graduates are prepared to work for free, fewer entry level paid positions are available. At the end of the day, would you pay a new graduate to do a job when another would do it for free?
Employment law solicitors are encouraging companies to consider minimum wage law and ensure that they are compliant if they use interns. They, along with campaigners are also calling for a fundamental change to the system, suggesting a restriction on the amount of time a company can ‘employ’ someone for free should be introduced. It is hoped that doing this would encourage companies to employ their interns on a paid, permanent basis afterwards.