DESPITE SOARING PROFITS AND SUPER-RICH CUSTOMERS, STORE PAYS TRAVEL EXPENSES ONLY
Harrods, the swanky department store in London’s Knightsbridge, has announced that it does not pay its interns, who work for up to three months for travel expenses only. When Graduate Fog approached the store for an explanation of this policy, Harrods press office refused to answer my questions and told me “we will not be participating in this feature.”
The world’s glitziest shop – which counts international royalty and Hollywood A-listers among its customers, made £7.8 million in pre-tax profits last year and has just spent £35.6 million on refurbishing its Knighstbridge store – is currently recruiting for interns to work unpaid in their HR department, press office and ‘By Appointment’ personal shopping department.
The following ads currently appear on Harrods’ own new, expensive-looking careers website:
Internship – HR (1-2 months)
Harrods are offering a Human Resources under-graduate the opportunity of an unpaid internship in Knightsbridge. This will last for approximately 2-months. The project is supporting the review and refinement of some of our existing processes and documentation so the successful student will be comfortable working with detail and doing administration. Flexibility and the ability to multi-task are key. You need to be experienced in using Microsoft Office packages, are studying a degree in HR and have the tenacity to work in the role with minimal guidance. We look forward to receiving your application.Internship – Harrods Press Office (3 months)
The Harrods Press Office are offering an exciting opportunity to join the team on a 3 month unpaid internship basis. This is a research-based project, so the successful candidate will need to be a self-starter, driven, and confident with working to deadlines. This internship will see you conducting internet research, as well as speaking to journalists and media contacts. Flexibility and the ability to multi-task are key. The successful candidate will be experienced in using Microsoft Office packages, be an under-graduate studying PR, and have the tenacity to work in the role with minimal guidance. We look forward to receiving your application.Internship – By Appointment Personal Shopping (3 months)
Harrods’ prestigious Personal Shopping Service, By Appointment, are looking for driven, fashion-focused interns to join the team for 3 months unpaid Internship, from November 2010 to January 2011. A strong sense of commercial awareness, resilience and pace are needed to maintain the service levels that are so integral to the luxury personal shopping service that is By Appointment. By Appointment offers discerning shoppers true luxury, with a premium shopping service of award-winning quality. Available as a complimentary offering in Menswear and Womenswear, By Appointment enlists the expertise of leading consultants and stylists who tailor the perfect solutions to our clients. If you have a passion for luxury retail, and are looking for a challenging and exciting step into personal shopping, we look forward to receiving your application.
Unfortunately, these job ads only went live AFTER I contacted Harrods’ press office.
My initial enquiries related to this paragraph, which I spotted in the FAQs section of their website:
“As internships at Harrods are voluntary placements, we do not offer a contract of employment or salary. We do, however, recognise that volunteering can be difficult due to travel expenses, so we will reimburse receipted travel expenses within London Zones 1-6.”
Pretty ironic – I thought – coming from the glitziest department store in the world, now owned by the Qatari royal family, who reportedly paid £1.5 billion for it in May 2010.
I also understand that Harrods’ finances are in pretty good shape – in October, the company announced that its profits had surged 40% in the last year.
Oh, guess what Harrods’ company motto is?
“All things for all people, everywhere.”
(as long as you can afford to work for us for free).
Unfortunately, as I said, when I originally spotted this paragraph, no internships were actually listed (the three detailed above appeared later) so I had no information about the nature of these placements.
So, on Friday 5 November, I contacted Harrods’ press office:
Hi there,
My name is Tanya de Grunwald and I run a graduate careers advice website called Graduate Fog.
I am interested to see that Harrods is openly recruiting for unpaid interns on your website and I would like to clarify the nature of these placements.
I would be grateful if a spokesperson for the store could provide answers to the following:
1) What length are Harrods’ internships? If there is no standard length, what are the shortest and longest periods that an interns’ placements will last?
2) Are the interns who take these roles students doing these placements as part of their course?
3) What is the nature of the work that interns will do during their placement? Are they simply work shadowing, or are they given duties to perform? Also, are they free to come and go as they please, or do they have set hours when they are expected to attend?
4) I understand that Harrods’ motto is ‘All things for all people, everywhere.’ How does this fit with the store’s decision to run unpaid placements which can only be accessed by those young people who can afford to work for free and who live in London (as you only reimburse travel expenses from Zones 1-6)?
5) Now that Graduate Fog has drawn your attention to this issue, will Harrods be reviewing its policy on using unpaid interns?
I will be blogging about this on Tuesday so if you could provide something on Monday that would be great.
With many thanks,
Tanya
By Monday afternoon, I hadn’t heard anything so I chased them.
This reply came from Harrods’ Press Office Assistant:
Hello Tanya,
Thank you for your email.
We will be able to provide commentary, but it may not be until tomorrow afternoon. I hope this is ok?
Best,
But then on Tuesday 9th November, this arrived from their Corporate Affairs Manager:
Dear Tanya,
Thank you for your enquiry, on consideration we will not be participating in the feature.
All the best with the article,
I replied immediately:
Thanks for your response, but you seem to have misunderstood. I wasn’t asking you to ‘participate in the feature’ – I was asking you for some basic facts about Harrods’ internships.
Can you even elaborate on how long they are and what kind of work is involved?
Or are you saying you are unwilling to provide this basic information?
Thanks again,
Tanya
There has been no response.
Hmm.
But Graduate Fog isn’t a quitter.
So I kept checking the Harrods website on the off-chance they would be silly enough to start posting ads for unpaid internships, knowing I would be watching them.
And look, folks – they are that silly!
In fact, they’ve posted THREE ads for unpaid internships.
And one is within the Press Office, the very department I contacted to raise my concerns about these posts.
Numpties.
For legal reasons, I am going to put a sock in it now – as I suspect Harrods’ legal team may be watching.
All I will say is that I am continually amazed to see brands openly declare that they ’employ’ young workers for extended periods of time and don’t pay them. Especially when, every day, the newspapers report on how bad youth unemployment is.
I am not saying that these placements aren’t beneficial to those who do them – of course they are, that’s the problem! But the fact is that these opportunities are only open to those who can afford to work for free – which is a tiny minority. How is that fair on all the other candidates? And when did it become okay to hire staff to do proper work for you and just not pay them?
Harrods now joins the growing list of household-name brands which Graduate Fog has found are perfectly happy to openly recruit young workers for lengthy unpaid placements, including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Superdrug, Weight Watchers, Urban Outfitters, Selfridges, Boots and Skype.
Even if these companies feel no shame about what they’re doing, their behaviour could be leaving them exposed to legal action from interns in the future.
Perhaps the HR managers at these brands should listen carefully to these recent warnings on Graduate Fog that hiring unpaid interns is far riskier than they realise…
*Are you shocked that Harrods openly admits to not paying its interns?
Can big brands really claim they can’t afford to pay their interns who are clearly doing proper work for them (as opposed to just work shadowing)? Does a fair day’s work deserve a fair day’s pay? Do you think less of brands who take advantage of their young staff like this?
Really shocking. Yet another slap in the face for young debt-ridden students/graduates and another reaffirmation of just how acceptable and mainstream the idea of unpaid internships has become. It’s no longer about how little or how much any given company is ABLE to pay their “interns” (temporary junior staff in reality) rather how much they WANT to pay and how little they can get away with paying! Surely this should be illegal, really…! Shame on Harrods and His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber bin Muhammad Al Than!!!
It’s understandable for non-profits and small business’ but not Harrods, and I bet they still get flooded with applications for them.
@Christopher
I agree – it makes me so angry that you guys don’t get better support on this – do you remember my source at the Dept of Business saying that prosecuting those who exploit interns is ‘not a good use of public money’???? Nice.
@Tom
I agree that it’s more shocking when those with such deep pockets take advantage of young workers – but I’m not even totally sure that non-profits and small businesses should do it either. In most cases, you’ll find that everyone else who works for these organisations gets paid, so why not the intern?
I would like to have an intern helping me to run Graduate Fog. At the risk of sounding like an arse, I’m sure I could sell it as ‘great experience’ and an ‘opportunity to work alongside an experienced journalist’ etc etc… But the simple fact is that I can’t afford to hire somebody, so it’s simply not an option. If you need extra staff but your business can’t afford it then I’m sorry, but that’s not a proper business!
“…the simple fact is that I can’t afford to hire somebody, so it’s simply not an option. If you need extra staff but your business can’t afford it then I’m sorry, but that’s not a proper business!”
Exactly! This is the core issue, in my opinion! The companies who are recruiting “interns” actually want, in many cases, a skilled, well-educated temporary employee to carry out specific duties and to adhere to a specific schedule- that used to be called a (paid) temp! If a business can’t afford to take on a paid employee then they shouldn’t be devious and unethical about the matter and just rename the position by adding the word intern and therefore apparently justifying the lack of a salary for what would be normally be a paid role!
@Tanya de Grunwald
I agree, interns should be paid if the job they’re doing is worth it, and, most of the time it would be.
However, if the company paid the intern then taking the intern on with no experience suddenly becomes a risk, whilst someone unpaid presents no risk. Relatively, that’s only really true for a smaller companies, larger companies have no excuse. I also agree that if you can’t afford to bring in extra staff then an intern is not a substitute.
Sometimes the choice as a graduate/student is getting some experience without being paid and getting no experience, whether you like it or not!
@Tom
“if the company paid the intern then taking the intern on with no experience suddenly becomes a risk, whilst someone unpaid presents no risk.”
I don’t really think this is an argument. For a start, there is always some risk when taking on new staff (paid or unpaid), which is why companies pay lots of money and spend lots of time making sure they recruit the right person. There is also protection in place to minimise risk for companies taking on new staff (paid or unpaid) such as probationary periods.
You can’t simply not pay someone because it takes away risk. Is that a justification for slavery? All decisions (particularly business decisions) involve risk, it’s your job to try and reduce that risk by making informed decisions, not by cheating desperate unemployed workers out of a wage.
@Tom and Ben
Thanks for your comments, these are interesting points I think.
Tom, I take your point about candidates with more experience seeming less risky to employers than those without, and I’m not suggesting that companies should necessarily return to taking people on for permanent roles without any experience – ie purely on potential (although we should note that this is the way things once were!)
But I do think there’s a middle ground between unpaid work and a permanent job – and like Ben I can see no reason why work done on a temporary, contract or casual basis shouldn’t be paid.
I know that businesses are struggling in the recession (esp small businesses) but to make out that bigger companies can’t afford to pay their staff is absolute nonsense. I fear we are making it too easy for them to exploit workers, especially young workers, who I believe are especially vulnerable.
I also think we’re in danger of pussy-footing around employers, for fear of scaring them into not hiring staff at all. But the situation is this, if you want to hire staff, you have to make some kind of commitment. And you have to pay them properly. Just because we’re in a recession, it doesn’t mean that all these important principles should fall by the wayside.
Besides, nothing is set in stone. In most jobs, you have a trial or probation period of (usually) three months.
Perhaps one solution could be to take possible new recruits on as ‘temps’ initially, as a sort of try-before-you-buy opportunity, for both sides. That said, the temp contracts route isn’t necessarily a solution – in Shiv Malik and Ed Howker’s book Jilted Generation, they warn against companies who basically ONLY use temps, on a rotation, so that they never have to take on permanent staff. So obviously there are potential pitfalls with this solution too…
“I fear we are making it too easy for them to exploit workers, especially young workers, who I believe are especially vulnerable.”
I completely agree. We are making it much too easy for employers to “hire” and rotate interns (or temporary staff in a slightly more positive scenario) rather than employing full-time permanent staff members and providing them with training, fair remuneration and job security! It has to work both ways; employers can’t expect for there to be a vast pool of educated, skilled young people willing to be abused and exploited in this way- graduates need to stand up to and refuse to accept this sort of discriminatory behaviour. If something isn’t done about it, nobody under the age of 30 will be in paid employment- we’ll all just end up amassing unpaid “work experience” and getting ourselves (and the country) even further into debt- in the long run this isn’t good for individuals, isn’t good for the economy and it isn’t good for the government! Our judicial system and our government need to introduce tougher legislation to ensure that the abuse of graduates by businesses stops.
@Ben
I do agree with you. I’m just trying to look at it from the employers point of view, and whilst there would still be risk there would certainly be less if they were unpaid.
To them it makes perfect business sense not to pay the intern, are they going to get a significantly better intern from offering pay? I don’t think so, so from their POV why would they want to pay? It will most likely take a law change to stop it from happening, but, do graduates and students want it to stop? If the choice is unpaid internship or nothing, what would you chose?
@Tanya
“Perhaps one solution could be to take possible new recruits on as ‘temps’ initially, as a sort of try-before-you-buy opportunity, for both sides.”
I completely agree with this, and a job I’m actually applying for today is offering this exact solution. I think that the problem is when there is no job after the internship, the intern is left with a few extra skills, maybe a reference, and nothing else. For three months work that isn’t enough.
@Tanya, I have just sent you a message through your contact page.
@Tom
“If the choice is unpaid internship or nothing, what would you chose?”
I think the whole point,Tom, is that if I could not financially afford to choose to do an ‘unpaid internship’ then I would be forced to choose ‘nothing’.
Call me naive, or call me an unrestructured socialist, but what’s so wrong with the idea of a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work? Whether you take someone on as a probationary temp, or whether you take them on immediately as a permanent member of staff, the principle should be the same. If that person is working for you, helping you save money, make money, streamline processes, find new clients, whatever, you pay them. Otherwise it’s exploitation, pure and simple.
I can’t afford to work for free. I can’t afford to work for employers who tell me that my reward is good publicity, increased skills, or wider experience. I can’t eat any of those things, and they won’t placate my bank manager when I go overdrawn.
Rather than think you need to labour for a tight company that won’t pay you even when you’re contributing to their bottom line, make your own experience. Need training? See what tutorials you can get for free on the internet or from your public library. Need to put skills into action? What projects can you get off the ground? What groups, committees, etc are around you which could do with an extra pair of hands? How can you get payment for your services? Can you take a % cut, for example, in return for something you set up, market, design etc. Always ask for payment of some kind – the risk otherwise is that others start to devalue your contribution. And that is what perpetuates the scandal of unpaid internships.
@Ben
True. I’m a little surprised that doesn’t count as discrimination. They can hardly say ‘We are an equal opportunity employer’.
@Clare – 100% agree with you.
If you can’t find a decent paid job, it’s marginally better for your future employment prospects and personal morale to devise your own unpaid graduate internship.
This topic keeps raising its head – as much an intern blog as a graduate one. Nonetheless the point made is valid. A company that can afford to pay for an intern should not expect itself to be treated as charity case.
I suspect your efforts at the Dept. of Business failed, because the politicians themselves are as culpable as the wider world. Internships in MP’s offices generally seem to be treated as unpaid as a given. If you’re lucky enough you might get travelling expenses. I doubt this will change in the short to medium term. MP’s can’t afford to increase the wage bill given the backlash of last year’s expenses scandal.
Ultimately, experience itself has become a tradeable commodity and under the current situation it will become the sole preservation of those who can afford it. Experience enhances your social mobility; the problem is that companies know this and exploit individuals.
Mps are some of the worst the site w4mp.org is dedicated to sourcing bright, unpaid interns for MPs. Work experience should always come with travel expenses, much of it isn’t and internships should be paid even if it’s at minimum wage. This would at least give those who don’t live in the capital or have parents who can finacially support them a fighting chance. Interestingly if you’ve been on job seekers for 6 months you can continue to get it whilst you complete an internship. Take away the month requisite and we’re at lest getting close.
@Samantha, thanks for your comment – and I totally agree that the MPs are among the guiltiest offenders! I want to you ask for your help with something actually but the email address you submitted with your comment doesn’t seem to work… If you could drop me a line via the Contact page that would be great – thanks! x
I really shouldn’t read these things at work as it just makes me angry (I’m an intern).
Was initially shocked at that meagre figure of £7.8million, until I realised that that’s just profit. Harrod’s only employs people that would otherwise shop there – filthy stinking rich. At least the place I’m interning at is nice to me.
@RedHeadFashionista – they’d be even nicer if they were paying you!!! : ( Did you get my email?
*checks last one of her three email addresses* Yes! Will try and get a response.
Do they not realise the interns could go on to sue for back pay? I hope they do!
Ann – I’m sure every intern could attempt to do this. I highly doubt anything would come of it, other than some bad press that will do NOTHING to dent Harrods’ profits. This issue is far bigger than any one lawsuit.
Tanya, I’m still wondering about this law that apparently forbids my employers from paying me as an intern…not found anything of the sort myself.
Gosh. What on earth are you on about? In my opinion you have come across as petty and nitpicking. It’s a great honour for anyone to be recruited as an intern at Harrods and work experience is absolutely vital for anyone wanting to break into the working world after studying. It’s no secret Harrods is elitist. No one tries to deny it, least of all Harrods themselves so of course they need to hire a rather elite set of staff. I think this is a great way of screening the applicants to be quite frank. I don’t think the snooty customer base of Harrods would appreciate dealing with staff members who weren’t somewhat “uppercrust”. It’s part of the brand. I really feel you should let go of this one. Let it slide – move on and focus your attention elsewhere. You write quite well by the way.
@Chloe Wright-Sinclair
1) Do you live in London?
2) Are you an American tourist?
i.e ANYONE can work in Harrods,I have known plenty of normal folk to do it and be paid for it. If you work in the women’s fashion floors you will be expected to have manicured hands and wear make up and high heels. If you are blonde and good looking you may become a favourite with the management…
You say elitist whereas there are tacky and bizarre things about it too. Have you seem the Dodi and Diana memorial?
Anyway I have gone off topic here…
Have you interned unpaid for Harrods? Or for any other well-known brand? Fancy some free money?
Check out Interns Fight for Justice – the new campaign from Graduate Fog and Intern Aware. We are looking for interns who are feeling brave / angry / skint enough to challenge their former employers and request the wages they are owed for the work they did unpaid.
Even if your internship was a while ago and you agreed to work unpaid at the time, that doesn’t matter. The minimum wage works out at around £1,000 a month, so depending on the length of your internship you could be in line to receive a tidy sum!
Just get in touch with us for more information:
https://graduatefog.co.uk/2012/2080/interns-fight-justice-campaign/
PS. None of this will cost you a penny!