BEING AN UNPAID INTERN IS NOT A CRIME, SAYS GRADUATE FOG
Nick Clegg has been ridiculed after it emerged that he himself had benefited from doing an unpaid internship early on in his career. The revelation came on the day that he was launching new measures to tackle social mobility among young people in Britain. (“Daddy got Clegg bank intern job”).
Graduate Fog thinks Nick Clegg is guilty of many things (!) – but he should not be attacked for having done an unpaid internship. Yes, it’s unfair that some young people can afford to work unpaid and others can’t. But interns – and their families, who may have helped them find these placements – are NOT the villains here. This applies whether the placement happened last week or 25 years ago, as in Clegg’s case. Doing an unpaid internship is not a crime.
Let’s be very clear who the real villains are in the story of unpaid internships. They are:
– The big companies that can well afford to pay their young staff – but choose not to because they’re too tight
– The small businesses who claim they don’t have the funds (yet) to pay all the junior staff they need, so make out that the experience is payment enough (Our National Minimum Wage law disagrees)
– The charities and non-profits which use emotional blackmail to make interns feel greedy for asking for a salary – when everybody else working there gets paid (Aren’t charity people lovely?)
– The intern ‘brokers’ who profit from the work of interns – while the interns themselves earn less than the NMW
– The universities which promote unpaid internships to their students and graduates, even though AGCAS continually reminds its members they are likely to be illegal
– The government officials who have failed to enforce the NMW legislation. (It is “not a good use of public money”, they told Graduate Fog).
– The politicians who have failed to kick the officials’ arses into protecting young workers (because they DO deserve the NMW).
– And the media, for keeping this issue off the main news agenda for way too long. (Hm, any idea why THAT might be..?)
So the interns themselves are not the villains here – they are the victims. Which is why Clegg’s ‘dodgy intern past’ is a non-story.
What IS a story is the number of MPs and councillors of all parties who continue to use unpaid interns – whilst pretending to care about social mobility.
And what IS embarrassing is the fact that Nick Clegg himself used unpaid interns, not that long ago.
(One of Clegg’s former interns – Jonny Medland – told reporters yesterday that he was only paid travel and food expenses when he worked for him in 2007. This shows there was a time when Clegg was on the ‘wrong’ side of this issue – which undermines his credibility when lecturing others on the ‘right’ way to do things now. It also shows that although Clegg says he felt exploited when he worked unpaid, that clearly didn’t stop him from doing it to someone else when he was in a position to take advantage. Again, this is not a good look).
That said, in 2011 finding someone who has NEVER hired an unpaid intern is a serious challenge. If we discover that Clegg uses unpaid interns now, I would be deeply unimpressed. But as far as we know that is not the case. Unless I have misunderstood this, all Clegg is saying that unpaid internships happen, we’re all guilty of taking advantage of young people – and it needs to stop.
I am pleased to see this issue finally taking its place in the main news agenda – but I suspect solving this complex problem will be more difficult than Clegg anticipates. For one thing, encouraging interns to report their employers will not be easy. Putting the burden on them is not fair – and it won’t work. Why on earth would you report someone you’re trying to impress?
If Clegg really wants to fix this problem, he needs to understand it first. Social mobility schemes, targets and quotas aren’t the answer here. We already have a National Minimum Wage law – let’s enforce it for all workers, including young people.
Of course, this is unlikely to appeal to Clegg because it means going after the real villains (see above) – and he will find that they’re sitting all around him. Let’s hope he’s ready to lose a few friends.
PS. IMO Clegg also needs to re-think the supposedly generous pledge that Lib Dem interns will now receive travel expenses and up to £5 for lunch. Since when did reimbursing employees for money they have spent by working for you make someone a hero?
*Do you think Clegg’s past as an unpaid intern makes him a hypocrite?
Do you think he’s plans to improve social mobility for young people are sincere? Or will his betrayal over tuition fees always undermine his credibility? Or do you not really care and just wish he’d sort out the current mess so you can start getting on with your career?
I agree Tanya, I believe Clegg’s story is a non story, and we can’t blame affluent families for giving their children a ‘leg up’; we all would want the best for them surely?
I can’t deny the delicious irony. But I just wish the government would do some actually useful for graduates. The real villains (and real heroes) need to be brought to justice! We need some sort of system that rewards paying employers (NMW at least) and notifies graduates of tight employers. I really applaud the work of interns anon. and ratemyplacement. Could we make this sort of thing official? We all know how companies crave a good rep.
It’s a really tough issue. We need something radical! Despite everything, I still believe Cleggers will pull through for us eventually!
(Don’t ask me why)
ps. Just pretend my avatars there, I’m the one grinning in a suit
Clegg has no backbone. He will do anything to stay in power. One of his main policies was to ensure that tuition did not go up, he wanted to abolish it didn’t he? Now it has gone up to £9k in some (I know my uni, a former poly is charging £8.5k)So no I think he will say this and do nothing about it. Let us hope he proves us wrong!
@Michael
I like your idea about some sort of awards system – actually the fabulous Internocracy already have a sort of ‘badge’ they award to companies that run really excellent (and paid!) internships.
I think asking the interns themselves to report their employers is never going to work – as i say, why report someone you’re trying to impress? Instead, here’s what I think should happen:
The Govt should come out and publicly say that not paying your staff when they’re doing a proper job is illegal, and they will be clamping down on it.
Then there should be an email address where anybody – including those who can’t afford to work for free – could send links to advertisements for roles that breach the NMW legislation.
Officials who receive these links would then get in touch with the employer (there’s contact details on the ad FFS! how hard can it be??) – and say “Oi – you’ve been reported – you need to pay your staff – take that ad down and put up a new one that’s paid, or don’t take on that member of staff. If you get reported again you’ll get a big fat fine.”
What do you reckon? Good idea?
@Jamie Bale
I agree that the tuition fees thing is a total disaster. And it is a bit rich Clegg lecturing us all on social mobility considering how damaging tuition fees are going to prove to be…
Hi Tanya,
I’m just sooo angry at this situation. Whilst I agree with you that yes the Nick Clegg unpaid internship story is a non story how he can he be for social mobility when the coalition then cut EMA and increase tuition fees? I’m tired by the fact that its becoming even harder for talented people to compete with those from privileged backgrounds. I just don’t see a way out of it. What more do you think can be done to stop this from continuing!
@Tanya
GREAT PLAN! I love it, after all taking on a graduate shouldn’t be a burden it should be a pleasure, we’re here to generate ideas, make things work and make ‘the man’ moola. So why not show a little appreciation? It should be common practice that work worthy of pay is paid.
@Jamie
I understand the Clegg hate, but lets take a moment’s reflection. This is a coalition, not a lid dem government (and even if it were could we be sure he could still deliever the abolishment of fees?) Clearly this was a heart breaking decision, was it not?
such a boring issue, give up
Oh yes Clegg is a hypocrite alright. He’s a hypocrite because he stands up and bemoans unpaid internships whilst the party that he leads is the single biggest user of unpaid workers of all the parties out there.
And what does he say about that – “Liberal Democrat MPs will…conform with minimum wage legislation as much as possible”.
As much as possible?! It will seek to stay within the law as much as it can, but not promise to stick to it!
Did these parliamentary savages not learn anything from the expenses scandal?!
I used to work the for the Lib Dems and they can be the worst, if not just politicians in general. To ‘get in’ you simply HAVE to do unpaid an internship/voluntary stuff which I did, which lead to being appointed as an Organiser in constituencies around the country running election campaigns working every hour God sends for a pittance. In one such location I actually met Nick Clegg before he even became leader. Nice guy, all the women fancied him, maybe not any more!
But if you want to move away from this and you try to apply to actually work in parliament with an MP – you get no where as you have ‘no parliamentary experience’ – meaning you have to go and work for nothing again in an MP’s office and try your luck.
There’s a job board at http://www.w4mp.org/html/personnel/jobs/list_jobs_ref.asp where the hypocrisy is in full display; unpaid internships with MPs who’s ducks are better treated.
Political parties can be tricky. They do ask for voluntary help; they need it, often on a constituency level they don’t have much money at all; but the level of mistreatment of interns and low level staff can be shocking. I’ve suffered, and know more than a few others, who’ve suffered mentally and I’m frankly amazed no one has pursed anything legally against them
Unpaid internships seem to be getting a lot of good press coverage recently, mostly agreeing with this.
What I find most interesting is that the Media sector and must be one of the biggest advocates of unpaid internships? Or am I wrong here? Are these journos writing these stories whilst being brought their coffee, freshly made by their intern?!
@Mary B – I agree that now it’s becoming clear that the Lib Dems use unpaid interns, Clegg has a massive problem with credibility on this issue! Oh dear…
@lawgraduate – Keep being angry – we need to keep pushing this issue!
@Michael – Glad you like my plan! Should I take it to Clegg??
@Nick – that W4MP website makes my blood boil… Anyone know how their business model works?
I also think we need to move away from this argument – ‘We don’t have any money so rely on volunteers’. Call me old-fashiond, but if you don’t have any money you can’t have staff. Simple. Find a way to get some money, or reduce your workforce. Do NOT take advantage of young workers because you can’t be bothered to go out and fundraise. The ‘charity shop’ business model of lovely senior citizens giving free labour is NOT something that was ever intended to be scaleable for the whole of business / politics / fashion / media etc… It is one very small exception. And actually, when Oxfam etc are paying such huge sums for advertising etc, should we be asking whether they SHOULD be paying their shop staff? I can’t imagine they’d demand huge salaries…
@Tom
I’m absolutely sure this is why this issue is not being reported more – and why it is often distorted by the time it reaches the viewers / readers / listeners. Media outlets in this country are not whiter-than-white – they all produced editorial that fits with their own agenda. Which means they ignore / twist news stories that they have their own reasons to want to hush up… For a long time I didn’t believe this could be true, but now i’m afraid I do.
@Tanya
I believe it’s ran as a service to MPS, peers, etc as it is an internal House of Commons website and it charges for those outside. I know that most adverts at least in the London area usually attract over a 100 applications a time paid or not.
Yes, you’re quite right – in my whole time there I met a few with some good ideas to fund raise and be able to employ people and pay proper wages. It just never got done because you spoke with those in power who knew that they could get cheap labour from students, graduates and many others desperate to do…..something.
oh and BTW, I went to Durham too! 2:2 in Politics in 2005 and barely scraping by!