Focus: A free lunch, but no salary

Abstract

INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 22 Volume 21 Issue 2 2014 FOCUS ❐ MINIMUM WAGES Young people and women are disproportionately affected by the trend for unpaid labour are riding roughshod through the regulations. However, governments have started to respond to this circumvention of minimum wage legislation . Ontario’s Ministry of Labour has forced employers in the media to pay the minimum wage or close down their internship programs, and in the UK HMRC (the national tax authority) has announced that it is investigating 200 companies that advertise internships and publicly denounced two employers using unpaid interns during London Fashion Week. This follows pressure from the campaign groups, organisations and blogs that have sprung up since unpaid interns became such a significant part of the workforce. For example, the European Youth Forum advocates its European Quality Charter for Internships and Apprenticeships, which has won some support from the European Commission (many of its objectives were adopted in the Commission’s proposal for a Council Recommendation on a Quality Framework for Internships). UK-based campaign group Intern Aware brings test cases for non-payment of the minimum wage, all of which – according to its website – it has won. High-profile employers such as Sony, Alexander McQueen and Arcadia Group have been taken to court and ordered to retroactively pay the minimum wage to their former interns. Similar groups have brought and supported litigation in the US and Canada. It is important to note, however, that much of this opposition to unpaid internships has come from groups that are not connected to trade unions. These are individual claims brought by vulnerable workers who risk prejudicing their employment prospects. This might be a missed opportunity for unions: the growth of unpaid internships seems to show a weak sense of entitlement among young workers . Insisting on employers’ compliance with existing legislation ought to be an easy target for trade unions, and gaining the minimum wage for young people could foster a commitment to rights at work in a new generation of employees. Furthermore, a concerted campaign by unions would likely be more effective than the individual claims that have driven progress so far. Some in the labour movement have been cautious about campaigning for the minimum wage. However, those laws have already been secured. Unions can play a useful role by ensuring that employers honour them. I n recent years employers have been side-stepping minimum wage legislation by using unpaid interns. They justify internships as a way of gaining industry-relevant experience but in reality many employers are using the ‘intern’ label to replace what were traditionally minimum - and low-wage jobs. Describing a productive job as an internship to avoid the minimum wage is not extraordinary: it is quickly becoming normal in some sectors. While there are very few statistics available there is a consensus among labour economists and campaigners that number of unpaid interns has risen substantially since the global financial crisis. Large proportions of the workforces of wealthy economies do not receive the minimum wage, and it is disproportionately young people and women who are affected (some sources say some 75 percent of unpaid interns in the United States are women). There are some particularly poignant examples of minimum wage avoidance. Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair (who introduced the minimum wage to the UK in 1998) recently advertised for an office assistant to work at his for-profit private office. The role was unpaid except for travel and lunch expenses. In March 2014 the New York Times offered an unpaid internship despite having printed an editorial condemning the practice just days earlier (the advertisement was later withdrawn). In the US, Canada and much of the EU unpaid internships are – in theory – illegal because they breach minimum wage laws. In the US the Fair Labor Standards Act requires that an internship include a training element, and also prohibits employers from benefitting from an intern’s labour. In Canada employers must meet similar standards in order to avoid paying the minimum wage under the Employment Standards Act, 2000. In the UK the legislation is even stricter: there is no legal definition of internships so anyone working with set hours and duties is theoretically...