Unpaid internships could be a thing of the past

A WHOLE group of Australians are ‘exploited’ every day for their hard work. But a landmark decision could see that all change.

Colleen Chen: “There needs to be a policy response that will help young people get jobs.” Picture: Melissa Cowan.

WHEN Colleen Chen was about to sign up for her third internship, something struck her as off.

She was about to start as an editorial intern for a 20-year-old Melbourne-based publisher when she was warned by a friend who had done a placement at the same company. Her friend told her that the publisher uses interns instead of paid staff for the bulk of the editorial work and rotates through them every three months.

The list of former interns was over a hundred and, to her knowledge, none of them managed to turn the internship into a paid writing gig for the medium-sized publisher. She said that the only paid staff members was one editor and some IT and support staff. The rest were unpaid interns.

So Ms Chen decided to ask for a contract for her internship so she could find out exactly what it entailed. The contract she was given for the unpaid gig had two stipulations she was uncomfortable with — that she would sign over her copyright for all work produced, and that she would sign away her OH&S rights. In other words, if she was injured on the job, that was her problem and hers alone.

It was this experience that convinced Ms Chen and some of her friends to start Interns Australia, an advocacy group that wants to see the federal government introduce laws to protect interns from being exploited as unpaid labour.

Unpaid internships are controversial. The main argument for them is that it gives students and recent graduates a foot in the door in competitive industries. In certain industries, such as journalism, it’s almost a rite of passage — few media students would pass up an opportunity to get their byline on published work.

Google pays its interns almost $US6000 a month — more than the median Australian salary.

But it’s easy to cross the line between ‘learning experience’ and plain exploitation.

Last week, the Federal Circuit Court fined Crocmedia $24,000 for breaching minimum wage conditions. The business had failed to adequately pay two interns over the course of more than a year. One intern was paid $2,940 over 14 months when they were entitled to $19,341 while another was paid nothing but should have received $5767. Crocmedia had earlier, after court action, agreed to pay the workers what they were owed.

Crocmedia had the two interns perform the same duties as someone in a paid position would have done. Judge Riethmuller branded Crocmedia’s actions as ‘exploitative’.

Ms Chen welcomed the decision by the court and hoped it would usher in a new era which would see interns get fair pay for fair work.

“Currently, there is a lack of clarity [under the law]. Some employers have interpreted that as allowing for unpaid interns,” she said. “It’s got to a point where some employers are demanding three or six months of unpaid work from interns. It’s replacing entry level jobs and young people are not being recognised for the work they are doing.

“Even if students gain experience from internships, experience is incidental to any form of work — we don’t see it as a substitute for payment. Work ought to be renumerated. There are those who have had a positive experience from internships but we can’t be sure that all young people will have that experience.

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“ASX-listed companies are less likely to engage in this practice. It’s more common in small and medium enterprises and in industries with an oversupply of graduates or going through a contraction.” Ms Chen said industries such as media, fashion, design and architecture have traditionally used unpaid interns, but these days, it’s in all industries.

“The worst one I’ve heard about is a bakery that ‘hired’ an accounting intern.

“‘Intern’ has become a grossly misused term to become an umbrella word for any informal and unpaid work placement.”

Interns Australia wants a government response or program to tackle the growing issue which has also plagued other countries. In the US, high profile lawsuits have been brought by former interns against companies such as Conde Nast.

But in the US, the burden of proof favours interns. There, employers have to prove that the work interns perform didn’t equate to employment whereas in Australia, interns have to prove that what they were doing could be interpreted as tasks undertaken by a paid position.

Ms Chen said the government needs to institute or program or accreditation scheme. “There needs to be a policy response that will help young people get jobs. There’s often a gap between leaving uni and getting that first proper job. A government-funded program could be beneficial. There needs to be a coordinated approach to address this issue.”

Interns Australia is in the process of developing an accreditation scheme to help young people identify good, quality internships.

Ms Chen, who is completing a law degree and hopes to specialise in employment law, will be attending the G20 Youth Summit to talk about young people in the labour market. She’s hoping young people will soon be valued for the work they do.

Originally published as Unpaid internships could be a thing of the past