Rare News Desk
Unpaid internships are under fire. In the United States, the campaign against so-called modern day slavery has mostly played out online — via social media and the blogosphere — and in the courts. Interns are suing their former employers. If they can prove their tasks would otherwise have been carried out by a paid staff member, they can be awarded back pay.
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In the United Kingdom, the outrage over unpaid internships is also intense. However, British activists have focused their attention on the political arena. Most unpaid internships contravene British labor laws, and activists are calling on the government to step up its enforcement. This fall, Channel 4, one of the United Kingdom’s major networks, will air a series of government-sponsored ads that inform interns of their legal rights and give a helpline which they can call and anonymously report their employers.
Why have two campaigns for the same cause developed so differently? Gus Baker is the co-director of Intern Aware, a British group that campaigns against unpaid internships. He believes American activists have not gotten much traction in the political arena because U.S. elected officials are some of the biggest employers of unpaid interns. For instance, on a typical summer day, 10,000 interns work on Capitol Hill alone, most of them unpaid. The most famous intern ever, Monica Lewinsky, was not paid for her work at the White House.
“U.S. politicians are so complicit and have so many unpaid interns. It’s difficult to get a hearing,” says Baker. “That was also the situation here about five years ago till we gave them a good bash around the head, to put it nicely.”
British activists zeroed-in on the unpaid interns working for elected officials. They have made significant progress on getting those interns paid. The practice still continues in some politicians’ offices, but activists do their best to “name-and-shame” when possible.
Last month, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron voiced his support for the new Channel 4 advertising campaign. “Exploitation of interns is unacceptable,” he wrote in a letter. Cameron had previously described himself as “relaxed” about this issue, saying that he himself benefited from an unpaid internship in his youth. His change of heart is the result of years of relentless lobbying by groups like Intern Aware.
“David Cameron hasn’t been ahead on this issue. But if people like him are slowly starting to realize that there’s a big issue with asking young people to work for free for such a long time, then business will have to get alongside him and start paying,” says Baker. “We don’t think the government is doing enough. They’re sitting on their hands. But recognition that there’s a problem is the first step to solving it.
The advertising campaign itself does not represent significant progress. “The authorities don’t want to actually enforce the law, so instead of doing that they’re putting advertisements on the television that inform people about the law,” says Baker. “It is a step forward, though, and I don’t mean to pooh pooh that.”
The goal of an unpaid internship is usually to get a job with the employer. If the employer guesses that an intern reported them, won’t that ruin any chance of being hired? Baker agrees this is a major pitfall.
“Obviously, if you’re the one intern sitting there looking grumpy and they get a call from the authorities, they will know it was you,” he says. “So, action needs to be taken proactively by the government not reactively. We would never try to say that interns aren’t in a really vulnerable position.”
And there is another problem with the advertising campaign: To be able report an unpaid internship, a young person needs to already be in an unpaid internship. The ads do nothing to help those who cannot afford to work for free.
The U.K. differs from the U.S. in that the professional job market is almost entirely concentrated in London, one of the most expensive cities in the world. For those who don’t already live in London, preferably with their parents, moving to the city and working unpaid can be very difficult, if not impossible.
“There’s a high bar,” says Baker. “The problem is not just the exploitation. It’s how exclusive unpaid interns are.”
Earlier this month, several major job posting sites announced they would no longer post ads for unpaid internships and called for such ads to be banned. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg spoke out against an outright ban, saying it would create a “black market.” Companies would recruit via their private networks, exacerbating social inequality.
Baker does not support a ban on advertising unpaid internships but believes such ads should be investigated to ensure the positions comply with the law.
On both sides of the Atlantic, the campaigns against unpaid internship are gaining momentum. It will be interesting to see whether the American approach, using social media and the courts, or the British approach, taking on the politicians, will yield greater success.
