Internships are the only ray of hope for many of the tens of thousands of media students who graduate each year and nobody wants to upset those offering a leg-up on the career ladder. So, when the National Union of Journalists launched Cashback for Interns, a campaign to encourage former interns to sue for unpaid wages, a few of the online responses were sceptical. One self-confessed "grumpy old man" called it "nanny state nonsense".
The NUJ supports internships. Paid internships are a good thing. They provide graduates with vital experience that goes beyond the academic, and supply the industry with a pool of enthusiastic new talent from which to recruit. Unpaid internships are both damaging and illegal. In the words of the NUJ's general secretary, Jeremy Dear: "Unpaid internships exploit dreams and exclude new talent, undermining the diversity of our profession."
They are an option only for those graduates with the resources to work for nothing, often for many months, often in London. Privileged youngsters may see internships as a point in their favour, weeding out less lucky competitors, but protecting the spurious advantage of a few should never take precedence over the elimination of a disadvantage to many.
Taking this stand is not unrealistic. It is not a question of whether one can afford the luxury of altruism. Unpaid internships benefit nobody; the constant supply of free labour is a large part of the reason that jobs stay in short supply. Those newcomers who do eventually find work will also find their wages substantially lower than those of trainees a decade ago, undercut by the working-for-nothing hopefuls coming up behind them. As more routine work is dished out to inexperienced, ill-supported workers, the quality of the product goes down. Consumers increasingly turn away from paying for traditional media and the cuts get deeper.
While working on the NUJ's campaign, it has become very clear that the position of interns is a thorn in the side of various professional groups. For an effective internship forum, trade unions, students, universities and interns' groups must work together. In particular, journalism lecturers seem weary of the increasing requests from media outlets for free student and graduate labour. Some sound more disillusioned than the students, unable to voice criticism of circumstances that predicate their own employment. Having been paid as trainee journalists, they find it depressing that they should be encouraging new graduates to fight to work for nothing.
In the report, Why Interns Need a Fair Wage, the Institute for Public Policy Research and the interns' lobby group, Internocracy, recognise that individual interns are not in a strong position to enforce their rights. This is where union solidarity counts. Unions can protect intern workers by helping to enforce existing legal obligations, as demonstrated by the landmark employment tribunal judgment in December 2009, Ms N Vetta v London Dreams Motion Pictures Ltd. The tribunal recognised that workers are defined by their work, not by job title. Nicola Vetta was recruited on an expenses-only basis as an art department assistant on a feature film; an intern in all but name. With the full legal backing of Bectu, she later successfully claimed the national minimum wage.
The NUJ's campaign is a call to arms. More interns need to come forward. When employers realise that interns already have legal rights that will be enforced, then the exploitation will stop. Bectu has welcomed the move to get interns recognised as workers in case law.
The root argument behind the creation of the national minimum wage also applies to the payment of interns. If a business cannot afford to pay its workers then it is not a viable business. Why should an ailing industry be leaning on those least able to support it?
Interns have three months from when their internship ends in which to make a claim through an employment tribunal. In a county court, there is a six-year limitation period and former interns who are now in secure employment can consider this route.
Journalism students on work experience are not legally categorised as workers and are exempt from claiming the national minimum wage.
Fiona O'Cleirigh is a freelance journalist organising the NUJ's Cashback for Interns campaign. For more information email interns@ londonfreelance.org