Swan Song for Unpaid Summer Interns
If you were looking to break into the film industry, would you accept an unpaid internship working on the set of a future Oscar-nominated movie? You’d be required to take lunch orders, make travel plans, answer phones, put out the garbage, get paperwork and checks signed, deliver petty cash, and pick up purchase orders. And you might get to mingle with the Stars now and again. Talk about a dream-come-true worth suing for…
Consider the (cautionary) tale of Eric Glatt. At 40, Eric was not your typical intern plus he had an M.B.A. and had previously worked on Wall Street for a multinational insurance company. But he was more than ready to change careers and follow his bliss to the film industry. As luck would have it, he found and accepted an unpaid internship position with Fox Searchlight Pictures on the production of Black Swan.
The intern market is currently booming, given the shaky economy and the difficulty college graduates are having finding entry level positions.
Annually, there are more than 1 million American students trying to get their careers started with internships and nearly 25 percent of them do it for no pay and no course credits.
But back to Eric. He worked his tail off in the studio’s accounting department doing the work of a low-level employee, but without the paycheck. That’s what they used to call “paying your dues.”
Today they just call it “unfair.”
So when Eric wasn’t busy fetching coffee and making photo copies, he took a few moments to ruminate about his daily tasks.
”I weighed my options for quite some time,” Eric said. “I remember reading an article saying that unpaid internships were a lawsuit waiting to happen. I realized after a while, I’m that lawsuit.”
And much to the dismay of his bosses at Fox Searchlight, sue them he did. And won.
Last June, a federal judge ruled that the company violated both federal and New York State minimum wage laws by not paying interns who were essentially regular employees.
Lawsuits against employers by unpaid interns are gaining ground.
Just two weeks ago, a former intern for the Los Angeles Clippers sued the Sterling Family Trust for two (long) months of unpaid work in the fan relations department (as if the infamous team owner Donald Sterling doesn’t have enough problems). The intern claims he was clocking 40 to 50 hours per week in his “dream job.”
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, “If the employer would have hired additional employees or required existing staff to work additional hours had the interns not performed the work, then the interns will be viewed as employees and entitled to compensation under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).”
Here’s the test to determine if you have an office full of illegal (unpaid) interns:
1. The internship must be similar to training that would be given in an educational environment;
2. It must be for the benefit of the intern;
3. The intern does not displace regular employees;
4. The employer derives no immediate advantage from the intern (really?);
5. The intern is not entitled to a job at the end of the internship;
6. The intern understands that he or she is not entitled to wages (until or unless he or she files a lawsuit and wins).
I have one word of advice for unpaid interns who feel taken advantage of by their employers.
Quit.
Wouldn't that be easier than going through all the trouble of filing a lawsuit (just sayin’)?
By the way, Eric Glatt is now a law student at Georgetown and runs the Interns ≠ Free Labor Twitter account.
Stay tuned.
Anita Alvare (bio)/Alvare Associates/610-520-6140
Black Swan, Business, Fair Labor Standards Act, Unpaid Internships, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Eric Glatt
