LABEL REFUSES TO COMMENT – AND LATER REMOVES OFFENDING ADVERT
*GRADUATE FOG EXCLUSIVE*
The fashion brand Vivienne Westwood has advertised a full-time, three-month unpaid internship on their company website, refused to answer our questions about how they feel this fits with the National Minimum Wage law – and then removed the advert we were enquiring about.
After 12 emails from Graduate Fog — sent over five weeks, as part of our Pay Your Interns campaign — a spokesperson from the brand’s HR department finally confirmed that Vivienne Westwood does employ interns, but declined to comment further.
Graduate Fog is disappointed to discover that Vivienne Westwood, voted three times ‘British Designer of the Year’, appears to be engaging in a practice that we know is so damaging for social mobility. Westwood herself — the ‘Grande Dame’ of British fashion, who received an OBE in 1992 — is the daughter of a greengrocer. She has always been highly political — and made her name with punk-inspired collections in the 1970s. We have always rather liked her – but we are rapidly going off her.
Here is the job description as it appeared on the website:
Visual Merchandising Assistant Internship
We are offering an unpaid internship within the Visual Merchandising Department to work to the creation of the all in-store and window displays.
The candidate should be available for a minimum of three months from Monday to Friday and must have Adobe and experience.”
This advert appears to suggest hat this internship involves set hours and proper work (why else would the intern need Adobe and experience?) — so we were interested to hear how Vivienne Westwood feel it fits with the National Minimum Wage legislation. After five weeks of silence — during which we sent 12 chasing emails — we received this response from Vivienne Westwood’s HR department:
To: Graduate Fog
From: Vivienne Westwood HR
Date: October 11th 2011I can confirm that we offer a range of internship packages which vary depending on the department, experience of the student and duration. I am afraid that, as a privately owned company, we do not release details of our employment conditions so I will be unable to give you any further information.
Since receiving this email from Vivienne Westwood, the advert for the ‘Visual Merchandising Assistant Internship’ has been removed from the website and been replaced by an almost-identical advert which does not include the word “unpaid”.
(Want to compare the two? See the before and after screen grabs below).
Does this change to the advertisement mean that the internship is now paid? Unfortunately, we have no way of finding out.
Those who have been following our Pay Your Interns campaign will know that Vivienne Westwood’s “We’re a private company so don’t answer questions like this” excuse was also used by River Island, who also refused to comment when we asked them to clarify their policy on internships.
It may be Vivienne Westwood’s right not to comment — and they may have nothing to hide. But from where we’re standing, it doesn’t half make them look bad, whether they’re hiding a guilty secret or stonewalling us because they think the internships issue isn’t important. Frankly, we expected more from the Grande Dame of British fashion. She is never normally so shy. And what happened to standing up and being counted?
See it with your own eyes! Here are the before and after screen grabs of the advert. See how the word ‘unpaid’ has been removed from the second ad?
*Are you disappointed in Vivienne Westwood?
Did you expect more from a label that has its roots in punk rock — and run by a designer who is so well-respected? Have you interned at Vivienne Westwood? Were you paid for your work at the company?
She’s too busy trying to save the rainforest to care
I’ve heard people say that the fashion industry would collapse without unpaid interns…
If you’ve interned in fashion, do you agree that the industry relies far too heavily on young, unpaid workers?
Tanya, didn’t the chap from the PR agency that was shadowed for that BBC programme who accidentally admitted that his business model was built on unpaid labour rather answer that question? It’s a massive industry but doesn’t seem to be remotely profitable for most of the people in it.
@RedHead
Ah yes, you’re referring to our old friends Modus PR, who represent Calvin Klein, Uniqlo and Sienna Miller – and admitted on national TV that 20 of their 70 staff were unpaid interns
Hmm. Reckon the fashion industry needs a new business model? One that relies on young unpaid workers doesn’t feel sustainable, does it…?
If a company can obviate the responsibilities established by Minimum Wage Legislation, and recruit willing slaves to function as Interns, then good luck to them…. unfortunately, candidates become complicit in a deceit perpetrated on the system. In particular, if the candidate is unemployed, then presumably they will rely on the “Bank of Mam and Dad”, plus occupy a position which could easily be filled by some candidate who is unemployed, plus allows the organisation to relieve itself of paying such trivial costs as salary, tax, national insurance.
The State ends up subsidising the employer to the tune of about £60,000 per job per employer per year.
What is more interesting about this case is that Vivienne Westwood is/was a trustee for the civil rights organisation ‘Liberty’ and collaborated with the human rights group Humanade.
Article 4 of the European Convention for human rights discusses slavery and forced labour. She must have thought carefully about labour, pay, fairness, abuse of power, exploitation etc.
These internships are an abuse of power, exploitation, an abuse of economic freedom, exclusive and, in general, ignores article 1 of the universal declaration of human rights that states ‘All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights’. So why pay some and not others? Why support a system that blatantly excludes the poor and exploits the needy?
With organisations such as Involve and individuals like Westwood claiming to support social participation, inclusion and empowerment yet deciding not to pay for labour I seriously wonder if anyone has any idea what is going on out in the real world at all!
Do they seriously think that things are so good that people can just go around working for free for a few months? Do they think parents can continue to afford looking after a few grown adults post-redundancy/business failure/salary reduction/on jsa etc. Do they think state benefits are given willy nilly and are enough to live on for 6 months? These people are crazy! Or perhaps some suppressed realities of class prejudice are bubbling to the surface in the most surprising of places.
If Vivienne is really so concerned with human and civil rights she should be actively supporting this campaign.
I have similar experience with another Couture brand who “employed” me for 6 month, £300/month average 13 hours /day. I was good enough to deal with clients, suppliers, organise showroom in Paris, talk to the press but not good enough to get paid apparently. every time I asked for a normal salary, I was told they could not afford it. What a joke! The company also claimed to be political/anti capitalist. hypocrites the lot of them! as soon as I left someone was there replacing me.
Funnily, looks like the “unpaid” removal was done sloppily-leaving out a double blank space. Seems they rushed to it
Have you interned unpaid for Vivienne Westwood? 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/
Thanks!
Graduate Fog x
PS. None of this will cost you a penny!