WORK FOR ELEVEN MONTHS UNPAID – WITH NO EXPENSES
A hawk-eyed Graduate Fogger has spotted what could be the most outrageous ad EVER for an internship ‘opportunity.’
Powerful Media – “a cutting edge media consultancy firm based in Canary Wharf”, which produces The Power List: Britain’s 100 Most Influential Black People – has publicly announced that it is seeking an internet-savvy graduate (with knowledge of InDesign) to work 10.30am – 6pm, three days a week for no salary at all. There is no mention of paying expenses and applicants must “commit to at least 11 months in the role.”
This makes our previous winner Urban Outfitters’ nine-month unpaid internship (which at least offered travel expenses) look positively generous.
Weirdly, Powerful Media’s ad even boasts about how much proper work the intern will be doing – for their non-existent pay packet – explaining, “This is not a paid position, but it is also not a ‘making the tea’ type role. Instead you will undertake a variety of research, editorial and PR-related tasks.”
To make matters worse, when Graduate Fog contacted Powerful Media they claimed this was a “training internship as opposed to a working one” – whatever that means?
Then, even more bizarrely, they offered to change the wording of the ad, while giving no indication that the nature of the actual role would be reviewed. I told them that wasn’t good enough.
(Keep reading for full details of our email exchange below).
But first here is the ad, which was posted on journalism and PR listings website Gorkana:
Powerful Media Ltd, Intern
date posted: Thursday, 16th September 2010
date ending: Thursday, 30th September 2010Powerful Media Ltd is a cutting edge media consultancy firm based in Canary Wharf. We undertake a broad range of services, including public relations strategy, online communications and publishing. We would like to offer a fantastic internship to someone interested in getting some hands-on journalistic experience with a touch of PR.
We are looking for a graduate who is intelligent and hard-working with bags of initiative. This is not a paid position, but it is also not a ‘making the tea’ type role. Instead you will undertake a variety of research, editorial and PR-related tasks, and learn a lot about the world of publishing along the way. All candidates must have good writing and grammar skills and be able to write at least a basic news article.
You should also have a full knowledge of Microsoft applications (Word/Excel/PowerPoint and Outlook), as well as a basic knowledge of InDesign. And it goes without saying someone who knows their way around the internet, is a must.
Our working hours are from 10.30 to 18.00, and we would be looking for someone who can work at least three days a week, AND can commit to at least 11 months in the role.
Please apply with covering letter telling us why you want to join our team, along with your current CV to: adenike@powerful-media.com
My email to them:
Hi Adenike
My name is Tanya de Grunwald and I run a graduate careers website called GraduateFog.co.uk. One of my users has seen your recent advertisement for an intern to work at Powerful Media for 11 months, unpaid, and asked me to drop you a line as issue of unpaid internships is one my users take very seriously.
You may not be aware but the role that you describe is likely to be illegal. The responsibilities that you outline, plus the set hours required, mean that officials are likely to deem that this role is clearly that of a ‘worker’ (as opposed to a ‘volunteer’ or someone just observing / ‘work shadowing’). As such, you are legally obliged to pay the minimum wage. The intern does not have the right to waive this wage by claiming they are happy to work for free in order to gain experience.
Here is some more information for you:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/7920381/Employers-warned-that-unpaid-internships-could-break-law.html
While everybody knows that unpaid internships happen – especially within journalism, marketing, PR etc – it is highly unusual to see a placement of this length (you state at least 11 months) advertised openly.
I will be blogging about this subject in the next day or two and would be grateful if you could supply a statement about this internship. If you were unaware of the legal situation around internships and are now willing to make this a paid placement, this would be a good opportunity to make this clear to my users. If you are planning to continue to run this placement unpaid as you believe it is lawful, I would be grateful if you could clarify on what grounds you believe this to be acceptable. Based on your response, I will decide whether to report this placement do the Pay and Work Rights Helpline, for HMRC to investigate.
In the meantime I would be grateful if you could drop me a line back to confirm that you have received this email. If I do not hear from you by 5pm tonight I will give you a call instead.
With many thanks,
Tanya
Their response:
Hi Tanya, in all honesty this is very much a training internship as opposed to a working one. But I see now how the way the ad is worded could imply something else. I have contacted Gorkana to change the wording on the ad, as I understand how it can be misleading.
Thanks for pointing this out to us.Adenike.x
My reply:
Hi Adenike,
Thanks for responding so swiftly. However, I still have concerns about this matter.
I am unclear… Are you saying that you are going to change the nature of this placement to make it that of a true volunteer – or that you are simply going to alter the wording of the ad but keep the nature of the position the same?
For more information about the difference between an internship and true volunteering, I suggest you contact Internocracy. (www.internocracy.org). As I understand it, in order to be the position of a true volunteer (who need not be paid), the intern must be allowed to come and go whenever they wish – there no obligation to turn up at any set times at all, nor must they make any kind of commitment about how long they will do the placement for. They must also have no expectations or responsibilities placed upon them – no set tasks to be completed for set deadlines. Are saying that your internship will now fit this description?
Alternatively, if you intend to keep the nature of the role the same and are simply going to change the wording of the ad and call this position a ‘training internship’, I’m afraid that is not sufficient. The role of a ‘worker’ is defined by the nature of the work that a person does – not by the label you (or they) choose to give it.
Again, you should check the details with Internocracy, but as I understand it, if the intern is still required to work set hours and given set responsibilities and is not doing this placement as part of their course (you state this person must be a graduate), then the role is one of a ‘worker’ and as such must be paid the National Minimum Wage. Furthermore, you have stated that certain skills are required, which adds to the impression that this is a proper job which should be paid. Calling it a ‘training internship’ does not change anything if the nature of the position remains the same.
I hope that this is clear? If so, please let me know how you plan to proceed. Are you planning to make this intern a true volunteer? Or, if they nature of the internship will remain the same, will you be making this a paid role?
Thanks again,
Tanya
That was sent at 1.15pm yesterday and I have not heard anything since.
I’ve done some investigating and found that Powerful Media is not just any old PR firm – it is the company which produces The Power List: Britain’s 100 Most Influential Black People.
In the Gallery section of their website, you’ll find pictures of their staff schmoozing with then-PM Gordon Brown plus David Lammy, Paul Boateng, Baroness Scotland, Baroness Amos and ‘top cop’ Leroy Logan. To me, the fact that these people clearly have friends in high places makes their advertisement all the more shocking.
The Graduate Fogger who alerted me to the ad agreed – saying she was appalled by the nerve of Powerful Media. Louise Potter, 22, who studied History at the University of Leeds, told me:
“How can a company think it’s acceptable to recruit someone and not pay them for an such an incredibly long period of time – with absolutely no indication that there will be a paid position on offer at the end of the 11 months. I’d like to know how they expect their intern to support themselves for almost a year without a source of income.
“Their claim that this is a ‘training internship’ is crazy. There’s only so much you can learn from a company. It’s one thing for a couple of weeks as a way to build up your CV, make sure the industry is for you, and to actually learn something, etc. But after a certain point it just becomes working for free. And is it just me or has every company under the sun jumped on the unpaid internship bandwagon? Now it seems that everyone thinks it’s acceptable behaviour.
“I know that the media is a competitive industry, but doesn’t this mean that the most able candidates should get paid, entry-level roles rather than those financially able to stick it out at unpaid positions for the longest?”
*Is this the most shocking internship ad you’ve ever seen?
Do you accept Powerful Media’s explanation that this position is a ‘training internship’ – or is it a role that should be paid?
Hi Tanya
The TUC says as many as a third of graduate internships are unpaid …
What I’ve suggested in our GRADUATE INTERNSHIPS ADVICE blog item is that graduates not able to land a paid job/internship should claim JSA, then construct their own internships (within JSA rules) so they get some career development along with the pittance of a benefit. JSA Advisors should be willing to go along with this, providing the “claimant” says they’re doing this as a way of getting a job and will abandon the internship as soon as they obtain paid employment.
Employers will be impressed by someone who creates their own internship to remove personal skills gaps and then “sells” the idea to a suitable “employer” (eg a charity). This approach would also have the benefit of cutting down on the numbers of able, desperate people who so want to get going on their career that they’ll work for free, however wealthy their employer.
This is pretty disappointing since Eboda’s Black Power list is really great for black people in the UK.
But I can’t excuse an unpaid intern for 11 months; that takes the piss come on.
Dear Ms.de Grunwald,
Thank you very much for highlighting this matter, one I find truly appalling. I have written up my own blog post on the subject where I have referenced this web page. You will note that there are already a number of comments. (The comments are available for viewing one week.)
Yours sincerely,
Michael Ezra
I notice this gets a mention in today’s piece in The Times – good work.
It’s worth mentioning that the last interview I went to for an 3 month unpaid internship, I questioned whether there would be a job at the end of it or if it was just a rolling thing they did (as in, one person for three months, then another, then another). I was told that they ran the internship simply because although they would love to be able to afford someone to do the role, they can’t afford it. I appreciated their honesty, but given this was one of London’s biggest arts venues, thought it was quite disappointing and was quite glad when it was offered to someone else in the end.
It strikes me that going through the same repetitive training process with a new intern every three (or nine!) months uses more staff hours than just getting a permanent member of entry level staff and paying them an assistant wage.
The thought of doing the same for nine months is a shocker.
I got my current temporary job through Monster.com. And I’m happy to say I’m being paid well for my work in a corner of the media where they value someone with my experience (gained partly through internships but also through training courses, a general interest and knowledge in the area, I should note.)
But am still seeing far too many internships floating around sites such as Gorkana.
I wonder if Gorkana should (would?) take a stand against the sheer amount of unpaid internships being advertised on their website – they have enough of an audience to make an impact. But it all comes down to money, I suppose.
Sorry, I mean eleven months. Not nine. Even worse.
I really don’t understand the fuss. This is a charity, and if someone is willing to do this either to support the work of the charity or to further their career, or both, then great. The other interesting thing is that you seem to assume this is exploitation of graduates, yet if you read the job description it seems to me that you are more likely to be looking a candidate at the opposite end of his/her working career, in order to have all the qualities and experience that would be necessary to fulfil this role.
Stop feeling aggrieved and get out there and do something positive.
Ros Fox,
Since when has Powerful Media been a charity?
@Ros Fox
Thanks for your comments – we welcome different points of view on Graduate Fog! How dull would it be if we all agreed… ; )
However, like Michael Ezra, that Powerful Media is a charity comes as news to me – have I missed something? Even if it was a charity, as we have seen from previous debates it is still ethically dubious for non-profit organisations to ‘hire’ young unpaid staff like this, especially when all their other staff receive a wage for their work.
The logic that ‘worthy’ employers have an excuse not to pay their staff is also flawed, unless you think nurses and social workers should also do their work for nothing? The fact that they get away with this is only because of of a loophole in the law which was originally designed to protect genuine volunteering. The Pay and Work Rights Helpline told me that people who would be considered ‘workers’ in the private sector can be labelled ‘voluntary workers’ if they are working for a non-profit organisation, even if their roles, hours and responsibilities are identical. Workers must be paid, Voluntary workers need not be paid – although there is apparently some debate about this now.)
I believe that this loophole is now being abused in order for strapped-for-cash non-profits to cut their staff costs. I believe these internships are not true volunteering at all – and as such they should be paid jobs.
Re the age / experience of the person that Powerful Media are after, they clearly state:
In this context (and the reassurance that this is not just ‘a making the tea type role’), I take this to mean that they are looking for a recent graduate. Do you disagree that this person is likely to be young, and therefore more likely to be doing this for the experience ie for their CV?
Tanya,
Powerful Media is NOT a charity.
Just want to clear that up.
Powerful Media is well known in the Black British community for the top Black Britons book it produces and charges a £5 for it. I know it is not a charity at all.
I applied for a year-long internship at Elle magazine. I think that covered travel. But they had no set hours (ie you would be at the beck and call of the team) and absolutely no guarentee of a job at the end. I also got offered a six-month post as a blogger for the jewellery label Mawi, which was six months with no money or reimbursement at all.