Nicola Vetta with Martin Spence, BECTU's assistant general secretary, in November 2009 after the tribunal ruled that her expenses only engagement was a breach of national minimum wage regulations.
3 August 2010
All five candidates for the leadership of the Labour Party have pledged their support for the right of interns to be paid the national minimum wage.
This follows approaches by the pressure group Intern Aware which is focussed on ending the inequality bound up in the increasing requirement for new entrants to work for unspecified periods for free.
Unpaid internships are not just unjust; many of them could be illegal
Highlighting the unfairness, which is adding to the problem of youth and graduate unemployment, Ben Lyons, co-director of Intern Aware, explained:
"It can cost up to £500 to intern for two weeks in London. In this time of high graduate unemployment we risk a lost generation of people who cannot afford to work for free. Too often, internships simply amount to graduates doing the same work their elder siblings would have received a salary for as an entry-level job.
"Unpaid internships are not just unjust; many of them could be illegal.
"Employment law confers rights on employees based on their conditions of work, not the label attached to their work by their employer. Anyone who contributes to an organisation is entitled to be paid.
Commenting directly on the support pledged by Labour leadership candidates - Diane Abbott, Ed Balls, Andy Burnham, David Milliband and Ed Milliband - Ben Lyons said:
"Whoever is the next leader of the opposition, we can expect Labour to campaign for fairer internships. We have reached a milestone in creating an internship system which encourages, rather than hinders, social mobility."
BECTU has played an important role in highlighting the exploitation of new entrants via internships and work experience. The union's backing for the successful prosecution of London Dreams Motion Pictures Ltd in November 2009 highlighted the rights of workers, even when they accept jobs advertised as 'expenses-only', to be paid the national minimum wage.
In March 2010, the industry training body, Skillset published new guidance covering the entire creative sector to clarify the expectations and obligations of employers and those who work for them as volunteers, trainees, interns, apprentices and on work experience. The new guidance should be read together with the industry-endorsed Work Experience Guidelines, published in 2007.
For more information about the rights of interns visit the TUC site www.rightsforinterns.org.uk launched in April 2010.
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