HIGH STREET RECRUITER FAILS TO APOLOGISE FOR SEEKING FORTY SIX INTERNS, PAYING WELL BELOW MINIMUM WAGE
Since this website began, we have seen some shockingly brazen behaviour by big name brands, when it comes to their treatment and payment of their interns. But this one will take some beating.
Graduate Fog has discovered that Reed.co.uk — the UK’s most-visited job website — is advertising a whopping 46 internships within its own company, paying well below the National Minimum Wage. When questioned by Graduate Fog, Reed have failed to apologise or provide an adequate explanation for their actions.
Most of these positions – with job titles including ‘Internship-Receptionist/Administrator’, ‘Internship-Secretarial & PA’ and ‘Internship-Executive Assistant’ – sound like proper jobs which should command a proper wage. In fact, remove the word ‘internship’ from the role title and in each case you have a much more accurate description of the position’s responsibilities.
Want to see the job ads for yourself? Scroll to the bottom of this post
The 46 ads for unpaid internships within Reed are in addition to hundreds of unpaid internships with other companies, advertised on Reed.co.uk, one of the biggest recruitment companies in Europe.
What Graduate Fog finds most shocking is that the people at Reed are trying to make out that – in taking on unpaid workers to fill what look like legitimate roles – they are somehow helping the UK’s young unemployed. One job ad – for a ‘secretarial’ position within Reed Hospitality, based in south west London – includes the following statement:
Within Reed, we have considered how we can help improve the current unemployment situation and, as a result, we are introducing internships aimed at:
a. giving opportunities for job seekers to gain valuable work experience;
b. creating a learning experience for job seekers, who will be provided with a structured training programme and on-the-job coaching within a customer facing role;
c. providing a unique opportunity for a job seeker to potentially gain permanent employment – in particular, with Reed or with one of our clients.
Yet this full-time internship pays just £92.50 per week – well below the NMW (which should be around £237.20 for a week’s work).
Worryingly, 119 people had already applied.
I am deeply concerned to see that a company as large as Reed appears not to have grasped that unpaid internships are a solution to absolutely nothing. Graduates need proper, paid jobs – not endless ‘opportunities’ to work for free in order to gain yet more experience. So I wrote to them:
From: Tanya de Grunwald
To: Reed
Date: Tuesday, 7 June, 2011, 17:24Hi
My name is Tanya de Grunwald and I run a website for job-seeking graduates, called Graduate Fog.
By far the biggest issue among my users is that of unpaid internships. We believe that they exploit those who do them and exclude those who can’t afford to do them. We think they are becoming longer and longer, with less and less chance of a job at the end of them. We believe it is a myth that unpaid internships lead to permanent, paid, entry-level jobs – in fact, we believe that unpaid internships are now replacing these paid opportunities. In short, we believe that unpaid internships are solving nothing for young people – in fact, they are making things worse. I would also like to refer to you the cases of Keri Hudson and Nicola Vetta, both of whom successfully sued their employers who refused to pay them for their work as interns.
I am writing to you because I was extremely disappointed to see so many advertisements for unpaid (or low-paid) internships on Reed.co.uk, which I had always understood to be a responsible and respectable recruitment company.
Of the hundreds of internships we found, 46 were within Reed itself and paid well below the minimum wage (£5.93 an hour). The travel and lunch expenses offered did not come close to matching this amount.
One of these was for an ‘internship – receptionist / administrator’ and another was for a ‘admin / secretarial & PA’ internship. Another was for an ‘Internship / Executive Assistant’. These – and that 43 other ‘opportunities’ we found – look to me like proper jobs which should be paid. As I understand it, these employees would fit the legal description of a ‘worker’ and are therefore entitled to be paid at least the National Minimum Wage.I will be blogging about this within the next few days and would like to include a response from Reed. I would therefore be grateful if you could answer the following questions (by email, so I have your responses in writing):
1) Is Reed aware that the National Minimum Wage in the UK is £5.93 an hour? Can you explain why these 46 vacancies pay far less than this, when the role descriptions make clear that proper work is expected of these employees?
2) When Reed advertises roles that pay less than the minimum wage for third parties (I have also found many of these), do you take a fee for doing this? How much is it?
3) I see you are working with Inspiring Interns, promoting their clients’ internships on Reed.co.uk. Could you clarify whether the roles advertised are paid at least the National Minimum Wage? In particular, the role Spanish speaking Marketing and PR FMCG internship looks to me like it should be paid at least the minimum wage. (In the ad, the salary is stated as ‘negotiable’)
With many thanks in advance for your help clarifying this matter,
Tanya de Grunwald
PS. I have also seen advertisements on Reed.co.uk for jobs which seem to be paid commission-only, like this one. Can you clarify how you feel this fits in with the National Minimum Wage Act? Thanks again.
A few days later, Reed wrote back:
From: Reed
To: Tanya de Grunwald
Date: Friday, 10 June, 2011, 13:19Hi Tanya,
Please see below comment from Reed in response to your queries relating to reed.co.uk job adverts and Reed’s internship scheme.
Martin Warnes, Managing Director of reed.co.uk says: “Reed.co.uk is a job board which carries advertisements for over 100,000 jobs at any one time from more than 9,000 recruiters. Currently employers advertise both paid and unpaid internships on reed.co.uk, which many people report have given them valuable work experience, especially at such a tough time to be looking for jobs.”
Ian Nicholas, HR Director at Reed, said: “Reed has developed a voluntary internship programme, which enables individuals looking to gain valuable insight and experience into the world of work the opportunity to do a placement of up to 12 weeks. This programme is entirely intern-led, with the individual specifying the amount of time they would like to spend with us each week and a tailored approach to ensure that we give them the opportunity to learn and gain experience in their areas of interest, as well as access to mentors across the business.
“Our internship programme is governed by strict guidelines and we are currently investigating the advertisements that have been identified. The programme is firmly focussed on developing talent and helping interns to identify and secure employment in their chosen field and has already resulted in more than 100 of our interns finding full time employment.”
Kind regards
Is it just me – or did they totally ignore most of my questions? I wrote back:
From: Tanya de Grunwald
To: Reed
Date: 10 June 2011 14:12Hi,
Thanks for this response. Just two follow-up questions:
1) Are you able to expand on what is meant by “we are currently investigating the advertisements that have been identified”? Have these advertisements been taken down? Will the application process be put on ‘pause’ until you are clearer on how these placements might fit with the NMW laws? I am pretty confident that you will find that whether the intern ‘volunteers’ to work for free is irrelevant as the current legislation stands. Or can you offer an alternative interpretation of the law?
2) Is Reed prepared to commit to reviewing its policy on advertising unpaid internships? If so, please let me know when you will be announcing findings of this review, so that I can keep my users up-to-date.
With many thanks again,
Tanya
Reed replied:
To: Tanya de Grunwald
From: Reed
Date: Tuesday, 14 June, 2011, 10:04Hi Tanya,
Thanks for your patience yesterday — here’s the comment below.
Kind regards
Ian Nicholas, HR & Training Director at Reed Specialist Recruitment, said:
“Our internship programme gives individuals the opportunity to learn and gain experience in their areas of interest for a maximum of 12 weeks. We have strict guidelines in place to govern the content of our internship programme and we work closely with all of our managers to communicate this guidance. We have removed the adverts in question from the website and have strengthened our procedures to monitor all adverts that relate to our internship programme.”
Impressed? No, neither was I.
Reed has failed to explain why they feel the workers who take on these internships are not entitled to the National Minimum Wage (Wouldn’t you think they’d have access to a few employment lawyers who could clarify this?). They have also failed to clarify whether they make money on finding candidates for unpaid (or low-paid) internships for their clients. And they have failed to answer questions about the nature of their work with Inspiring Interns – or how ‘commission-only’ jobs fit with the NMW legislation.
Wouldn’t you expect better from one of the biggest recruitment companies in Europe? I would. Shame on you, Reed.
*Is Reed taking advantage of desperate, young workers?
Should one of the biggest recruitment companies in Europe be running ads for unpaid internships – both within their own company and at clients’ organisations? Are you disappointed by their response, when questioned? Would you hope that a big brand like this would lead the way in treating young workers well, including providing fair payment for their work?
Decide for yourself! Here are screenshots of some of the ads:
Intern receptionist:
Intern executive assistant
Secretarial admin internship:
Oh please, Reed.
Secretarial / admin / receptionist roles are the jobs I got to *supplement* my internships. Not AS an internship. Reed, more than anyone, should know the going rates for these jobs. I started on these sort of jobs getting £6.50 p/h when I was 16/17. There’s no excuse.
This is the most ridiculous, clutching at straws excuse for an “internship programme” I’ve ever seen. Secretarial intern. Laugh. Out. Loud.
They know full well that they are too tight to pay the salary of a junior admin position. Why pay? everyone else is advertising ‘internships’ or ‘apprenticeships’ in junior admin roles, as I regularly see down at the job centre. It shouldn’t be allowed. It’s not junior admin training with day release at college, is it?
I would rather be unemployed than be insulted with such a ridiculous wage/role. I say ridiculous role (not because the job itself is ridiculous to me) but because they are brazenly taken the p, and wouldn’t have got away with it even 3 years ago.
Wages are going down, down, down and down
Try reporting them to the Advertising Standards Authority http://www.asa.org.uk/Complaints/How-to-complain.aspx for misleading ads. or try reporting them to REC http://www.rec.uk.com/home
My blood pressure is going up, up, up and up!
Unbelievable
This is utterly, utterly revolting behaviour. Reed has plunged into the gutter by using young people in this way. It is disgusting that they should try to dress up what is clearly real work as some kind of learning experience – “intern receptionist”, who do they think they are kidding?
As a nation we decry the abuse of people’s rights in other countries, how can we do that with any justification given that we let this wholesale abuse of young person’s rights carry on unfettered here at home. We have a Minimum Wage for everyone else, however it seems that it simply does not exist for young people.
Shame on you Reed, shame on you Ian Nicholas and shame on you HMRC for allowing these people to steal from the young in this way.
Vile.
How can they get away with this? I don’t think they should and I think we should encourage everyone to boycott their recruitment site. It probably won’t change anything for me as I have yet to have an interview from any of the vacancies I have applied for on the site.
Hi Wayne, I agree, and I think we should actively promote such a boycott. I am going to do so with immediate effect.
Bastards! How dare they?
Tanya, have you got an email address for their head office? I can’t find one for love nor money, or for any of the branches either!!
Actually, this is how you do it: http://www.reed.co.uk/ContactUs.aspx
I decided to do some background checks on the current job post I am being interviewed for in a few days. I am actually pretty excited about the job post INTERNSHIP.
Okay, so I havnt spent years at uni and I think the 12 week program will be abit of a struggle for me because the of pay ( That being of travel and food allowance only) however the end result might well result in a full time job , paying a min of 16-20k basic a year. I think this 12 week internship could really suss out who is dedicated to the job role or not.
Another thing Tanya de Grunwald, I understand that this is a graduate fog. I also understand that ” Graduates need proper, paid jobs — not endless ‘opportunities’ ” What about young people who chose not go to uni? Do they not need these oppportunities? If it gets young people off off JSA for 12 weeks and involves intensive training with the biggest recruitment agency ….I can honestly say I can not see anything wrong with that.
Can you?
PS- Also When the recruitment companys post ” paid commission-only posts” this means that the job itself is sales and allows you, if you are good, to make the min wage and above . I wouldn’t personally go for a commission only job post however some people enjoy the sales they do and are very good at it so it varies to person to person.
Wish me luck on my Internship 😀
Hi, I have recently started an internship with Reed. The internship seems to be fairly structured with the opportunity to go on training days.
I would say that your statement “We believe it is a myth that unpaid internships lead to permanent, paid, entry-level jobs” is inaccurate in this instance. I personally am not seeking a permanent job as I am at university but others who have completed an internship in my branch have gone on to be employed as trainee Recruitment Consultants and others have found jobs through the agency. You are also overlooking that Reed is a recruitment consultancy and therefore helps match candidates to jobs – interns are known to the consultants and therefore they can personally recommend candidates directly to employers, improving their chances of employment.
Personally I do not feel like I am being exploited. I was taken on without any office experience and it is a training role with a variety of tasks. Perhaps when I’m at the end of the internship I will leave another comment with an update if people are interested.
I too have completed an internship at Reed and now I am a permanent member of staff. I enjoyed my time as an intern and my employers always gave me encouragement to apply for jobs within the company.
I actually come from an artistic backround and when I was applying for internships I found that a lot of Art and gallery internships pay absolutely nothing towards interns and most of these internships will be extended to 6 months or more. The fact that Reed paid me and actively encouraged me shows that they are not as cruel and heartless as you all think!
I may be wrong but it seems that most of the negative comments are from people who have never actually been on an internship? I was always taught that unless you have been in that relevant situation/position you are not qualified to comment with any form of confidence or integrity. Could I suggest that those who are complaining actually speak to someone who has completed a Reed internship then you may have different view point. Yes they offer little in terms of short term financial rewards but like anything in life the experience and benefit of some excellent on the job training will far outweigh that in the long term.
Hello,
Three months ago I completed an internship for Reed in Wimbledon. I came out of college with three A levels and wanting to start my career, I applied to the internship.
I was given full training, hands on experience and an excellent team to work for. My experience started my career. Three months down the line, I have moved down to Brighton on my own, rented a flat and become a permanent consultant at Reed in Brighton. Seeing as I have just turned 19, the internship was the best thing to happen to me and I have come so far since.
I could not recommend it more. I find it very sad that people are so mislead by interships. I was given food and travel allowence wich was more than enough to live off, and given the experience and training I recieved, the lack of payment was nothing to comlpain about.
It is frustrating how unaware some people are. First hand experience shows that these rumours of ‘using young people’ are wrong. I find it a lot worse that places like Topshop with a high applicant demand can pay minimum wage, with ridiculous hours and little movement within the business. In comparison I would rather be in an envrionment starting at the bottom and with a lot of help and support, working my way to the top.
I have run 6 internships from my office. 3 candidates now have permanent jobs in Reed from this scheme where they had no work experience before. The other 3 now have permanent roles else where due to the administration skills they learnt here in my office.
Did you know that internship aren’t meant to be paid! It is only expenses that are required to be paid in an internship as they are especially laid out to give people work experience when they have none. As you can see, at Reed, they are very successful!
This article makes me so angry, clearly no research has actually been done. It’s typical that it has been written with no actual feedback from the interns themselves.
I also undertook an internship at Reed after I found it difficult to find a job that didn’t need office experience. It has turned out to be the best decision I have made. I gained valuable office experience and decided that I wanted to go into recruitment, becasue of this I was offered a permanent job early as one became available within the office and have now been here over a year and have enjoyed every minute.
James and Sir Alec themselves as well as several regional managers have even visited and asked for our feedback on the scheme.
Since my internship, I have seen 5 others who have all gone onto either a permanent role with us or one of our clients.
As a graduate myself, I am doing much better than a lot of my peers with the same qualifications and have been grateful for the opportunity.
Please do more research before posting ridiculous articles like this again.
I was contemplating suicide last year. It was only my unpaid internship arranged through REED that kept me going. It gave me a strong sense of self-worth, and personal pride. Without REED advertising unpaid internships, I wouldn’t be here today to contribute to this frankly awful website. God bless REED.
Unlike Daisy, it’s not just the article that makes me angry, but some of the misinformed comments underneath it!
For example, Emily said “Did you know that internship aren’t meant to be paid!”. Any sort of work requires payment, otherwise it’s a trendy rebranding of slavery!
Stuart suggests that those who have not undertaken an internship should not be able to criticise the practice. Indeed, many people like myself have not worked as interns because they are completely unaffordable for young working-class graduates!
I do say “graduates”, as Lucy started discussing jobseekers who did not attend university. Lucy, this website is called “Graduate Fog” and does specify that its focus is on graduates, so it’s hardly surprising that content here mentions them specifically. From my own experiences of reading articles here, Tanya hardly ignores the wider issues of unemployment.
Students and graduates of modern times have already paid for an education that they were told would help them get jobs. It’s not fair to expect them to survive on next to nothing while being exploited doing work for which other people get a decent living wage.
In any case, good work Tanya. Do reed have a twitter account? I’m better when not given the opportunity to rant at length!
Hey guys, before you come back to impress how good your internships were with Reed and criticize the quality of article research done here, how about taking the time to look around the site and find out about the valid reasons Graduate Fog is against unpaid internships. You will find out that your internships were illegal. You will discover that REED broke the NMW law by letting you work for them for nothing in exchange for experience.
Also note that not all interns get a job after giving months upaid to REED. Would you be rushing to their defence is they didn’t give you a job after you worked hard?? Many people who campaign against internships at this site turned to this way of thinking after they completed an internship or two somewhere and they didn’t get a job out of it, only endless ‘experience’
describing an internship as “a trendy reband of slaverly” is hilarious. Please read the many comments above of how helpful the internships have been for people with first hand experience such as myself.
We are the ones to judge.
What the heck is an ‘intern executive assistant’? An ‘executive assistant’ that isn’t paid? Oh, right. Ok, again, what’s an ‘executive assistant’?
I am in fact working class and a graduate, again you are just assuming you know the facts.
We were all told that this would be unpaid, we weren’t kidnapped and forced into it.
I can completely understand that everyone has different views on this and can respect other opinions but surely comments from interns themselves praising the scheme is a big factor towards proving how great it is.
Rex_Cymru – ….seriously? Wow.
also, in response to Joddle, Reed is a recruitment agency, even if I was not offered work within the company (i went to around 5 interviews for different positions within Reed)the huge amount of support I was given made me certain that even if i was not interested in becoming a recruitment consultant they would still find me work. This was discussed in my early days when I was not sure what path I would be going down.
I have not met one person who has not been succesful from these internships, everyone I work with was an intern here.
I came to England early this year planning only to stay for 6 months or so during a gap year from uni and after 3 months of not being able to find a job I was given an opportunity to do a Reed internship which was probably the best thing that could have happened. Throughout the 12 weeks I was trained in all aspects of recruitment and given support from my manager and other colleagues. When it came to the end of my internship my manager encouraged and helped me to get the job I wanted.
I have now begun a permanent position as an accounts coordinator at Reed which I believe with my experience I would not have got without doing the internship. So in my opinion internships should be encouraged, you won’t get anywhere if you don’t work hard.
@RedHead Yes. And when I was really down on my luck and was ultimately kicked out of my flat for non-payment of rent Reed offered me their office to sleep in. They allowed me to live on the contents of their staff fridge but I would have to hide in the cupboard during the day when staff were giving interviews for jobs that weren’t paid and giving people numeracy and literacy tests to make sure they weren’t vegetables.
Wow – thanks to everyone for commenting today!
Could the Reed interns give us a better idea of what sort of work you were doing during your internships at the company? Did you work set hours? And did you have set responsibilities? How much were you paid per week / month?
Once you’ve told us that, perhaps you could also ask your managing director to join in this discussion and explain to us how he feels these internships at Reed fit with the national minimum wage law? I feel sure that Reed should have access to one or two employment lawyers who should be able to get him up to speed.
Zing I am a working class boy who left school early and did not go to University or College but chose instead to work hard for little money to get on the job ladder and start a career. That’s how life works. Nobody supported me financially and it was hard but what were my options. Why do you think life owes you anything, and certainly not because you spent 4 years studying. Life is cruel and unfair but work hard any try and you may succeed, whinge and do nothing and you most certainly will not. I suppose you will choose the latter as its obviously easier for you to maybe claim allowances and sit at home rather than get experience and have your expenses taken care of. Good luck finding a job.
I should add that I am more working class than all of you put together. When I was a ‘wee bairn’ I had to get up in the morning at ten o’clock at night half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah.
Rex!! Its me yer dad!!! where ya been ya wee pain, yer mather wants ya to clean yer room and ya havnt eaten ya coal!! Oh and ya sister is doin an internship with Reed and apparently there illegal!!
Actually, rather than sitting at home claiming benefits, I have a senior managerial position, second only to the managing directors at a successful international company. You don’t need to be the one living out of a cardboard box to know that it’s wrong!
Whether you approve of it or not, there has long been a narrative in British culture, politics and education of “Work hard, go to uni, be successful”. With graduates now putting themselves into ever increasing debt in order to get into a half-decent career, why should they be forced into living without income for an even greater period of time? It’s not just unfair, it’s completely counterproductive to improving social mobility.
It’s not a matter of “life is cruel”. Perfectly successful companies like Reed and others who offer unpaid internships just care about their bottom line.
Ah, I remember the days when I got an admin position in the school holidays that paid £7.50 an hour at age 16! Now you need a degree and a 12 week internship for a sniff of such things!
Rex_Cymru – You’re ace! 😀
I’m really confused…maybe I need to do a few more internships before I get enough experience to know what’s being talked about.
Stuart, everyone who does do real work for a company are owed “something”. They are owed the dignity of a legal minimum payment for their work. It is total poppycock to suggest that Reed should be able to get away with subsidising their business because “Life is cruel and unfair”.
Reed may think that, by persuading their workers to come on here and defend them, that they can somehow make themselves look better but they are condemned by their own wilingness to use young people for their own corporate ends.
Paying workers the legal minbimum is what just and fair companies do. It’s time Reed joined the human race.
Rex_Cymru. I’m stunned that you can find the subject of suicide as one you can extract “comedy” from.
nobody has told us to comment this, I do it by my own accord, as do the other people I work with who were originally interns. I am very happy working at Reed. They have given me full support and endless opportunities.
Is that not enough? It is all I ask for in a career and they have succeeded above and beyond.
What difference is an internship to Univeristy anyway? I did not go to University and I am doing the same job at the same salary to other consultants who did go to University. They say you need to be a graduate to get work. You work hard for three years, get in thousands of pounds of debt and still might not see anything at the end of it.
At least this way there is no debt and three months of hands on experience (by all means no stressful hours either). It is more specific and relevant and has changed my life. Surely this is enough to change your mind?
There is very little more revolting than a company shepherding its unpaid workers into line to defend its corporate reputation.
Reed, as a company you are an utter disgrace.
Becky, the difference between working unpaid and going to University is that the law, quite rightly, defends people’s rights to be paid for doing the latter. Everyone learns by working, it doesn’t mean that people should not also get paid for it. Reed is not some kind of charity, helping out young people; they are cynically exploiting people for their work, and making money out of them.
Wow Becky, what an extraordinary coincidence that all these Reed interns should turn up at the same time to defend the company! Almost like they told you to (but of course that can’t be the case because you have said they didn’t).
Its not a case of having done a Reed Internship or not! The issue is that graduates need to be paid for their work, rather than being made to think they are so completely unskilled, and therefore don’t deserve a wage! Businesses are just exploiting the current graduate/employment situation. And having been caught red-handed – at least have the decency to confess and rectify!!
@Becky
You say:
… Can you clarify what sort of tasks you were given and what hours you worked?
If Reed are so sure they are on safe ground legally there should be no problem with you supplying this information.
If any university careers advisers are reading, can you explain why these young people seem to have no idea about interns’ rights to pay?
Yes Steve actually they did as we haven’t got the skills to search the internet or think for ourselves in anyway. Why would we spend time and effort defending something that we didn’t genuinely believe in.
Tanya, my working hours as an intern were 9-5 and I had all expenses paid as well as free training opportunities. The job titles discussed above are due to the fact that when you start, you are able to decide which skills you would like to improve on and which career you would most like to follow. Some interns decided on PA or administration roles whereas I decided on a career in recruitment.
Our current intern had been searching for work for a number of months but was turned down by each employer as she hasn’t worked in an office for a number of years even though she is an excellent candidate – no one would give her a chance. She has worked for us for around 4 weeks now giving her extra experience and knowledge of the companies in our area and the skills they look for. She is now leaving us to go into this new paid role and is extremely happy. Her working hours were 9-3 as she has children.
Tanya, I can completely see your point about the legalities and I understand where people are coming from when they say that people are being exploited but I just think this is untrue. The amount of candidates who I come across who are earning nothing at all whilst searching for work are so high. None of us were forced to stay in this internship and help is given to find other work if the internship is not working out as the internship above shows.
@Daisy
Thanks for clarifying that.
I know you weren’t forced to do these internships, and I don’t doubt that you found them useful. Some of the people who you worked for at Reed may even think they’re genuinely doing a good thing through this internship scheme.
However, we have a minimum wage law in this country – for good reasons. Unless minimum wages are enforced, vulnerable workers will undercut each other further and further, creating a ‘race to the bottom’ to a point where nobody is paid anything. This is exactly what has happened with internships.
For very good reasons, employers cannot just choose whether to pay the NMW or not – and for other very good reasons, interns do not have the right to waive their right to the NMW, even if they insist they are happy to work for free because it’s such good experience.
What we are seeing with unpaid internships is that they seem to be getting longer and longer – with less and less chance of a job at the end of them. Increasingly, young people who do them are finding that at the end of their internship they simply go on to do another unpaid internship. There are real concerns that unpaid interns are no longer leading to paid jobs – now they are replacing paid jobs.
Having started in ‘sexy’ industries like fashion, media and politics, they are also spreading rapidly to all sorts of industries – and that is shocking. The Observer included those role descriptions in their paragraphs about Reed for a good reason. They knew that most readers would laugh out loud at the idea an “intern executive assistant.” To anybody older than 30, it is so ludicrous it is hilarious – or it would be, if it wasn’t so tragic.
None of this is the fault of those who do unpaid internships – it is the fault of the employers who take their labour without paying for it. It is also the fault of your universities for not providing you with better information about your rights to pay. I never blame anybody for doing an unpaid internship – I know that many of you feel you have no choice if you want to get your careers started. But it shouldn’t be like this. It wasn’t always like this – and it is worth fighting to get young people a better deal, because your labour is worth paying for.
I am also increasingly concerned about the way the contract between employers and workers is being distorted here. Experience is a by-product of having a job, it is not payment in itself. And if you work for an employer, providing labour that is commercially valuable to them, they they should have the decency to pay you. As well as it being their legal responsibility to do so, it is also the fair, honourable and decent thing to do.
Also Tanya, the tasks we are given depend on the kind of experience the intern chooses. I chose to do sales calls (with incentives and prizes, also earning some commission doing this) as well as finding CV’s, interviewing candidates and going out on client visits. Other interns have chosen to learn admin skills such as processing timesheets, writing references, writing job descriptions and making posters for the walls.
I can see your point above but when we don’t have an intern, there is no-one here replacing them – they are here to gain experience from us and I know that if I did want to leave at that point I would have been able to find an excellent job as we are constantly listening to interviews and speaking with clients about the kind of candidates they look for.
Amazing Daisy! You all independently thought for yourself and all, independently arrived on this site to defend your company’s reputation all at exactly the same time! What are the chances eh?!
Daisy, you did real work within set hours with remuneration which has a monetary value. Is Reed really content to break the law by not paying you and everyone else?
One of my colleagues who was also an inter found this after searching the internet and told me, you insinuated it was management that told us to and that was incorrect.
Mary, they may be but that is something that can be dealt with by the relevant authority if this is the case. I feel that this would have been picked up already if it was the case. My argument can only be that I have genuinely benefited from this experience and now have an excellent job from it. I did work those hours with flexibility due to it being low paid and with the opportunity for temporary roles that were available during if I was not managing.
No, it is not the case that if Reed has broken the law, that something would have been done about it. It may be that the relevant aouthorities may investigate if they are alerted (and they have started to look very closely at companies that break the law in this way so hopefully Reed will be fingered as a result) but Reed are probably hoping that they are big enough to get away with a little light thievery.
No-one doubts that people get personal benefit from working, even if it is for nothing, the point is that minimum standards of decency (and the law) require that the company pays their workers as well.
Reed seems to be happy to trample around in the gutter when it comes to honesty and decency – hopefully a little light has been shone on their exploitative behaviour by this site.