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Internships have fallen under much criticism in the media of late, with campaigners and employment law solicitors alike accusing them of exploiting young people, particularly recent graduates, often illegally. Whilst the employment law solicitors react angrily and express fear over the constant rise of the internship, the companies who use interns and very often, even the interns themselves, would argue that it’s more about experience than exploitation. So which is it?

The use of internships is more prevalent in some industries 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. Some interns even claim they and their counterparts outnumbered the actual paid staff in some establishments. This suggests that many companies, not just in the fashion industry, are relying too heavily on unpaid work by interns.

Employment law solicitors point to minimum wage rules, which suggest that companies using interns may well be acting unlawfully by failing to pay interns. Calling someone an intern is not enough to avoid paying them, they say. 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. Unfortunately, such cases have not set the precedent that campaigners had hoped and the situation remains largely unchanged.

Campaigners claim that internships are actually responsible for the problem they claim to resolve: graduate unemployment. As more graduates are prepared to work for free, fewer entry level paid positions are available. After all, who would pay a new graduate to do something another graduate would do just as well for free?

Employment law solicitors are working to raise awareness of the need to comply with minimum wage legislation. 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.