AND WE DEMAND AN APOLOGY FROM SIMON COWELL
** UPDATE: SINCE THIS STORY WAS FIRST PUBLISHED, X FACTOR INTERNS HAVE RECEIVED THOUSANDS OF POUNDS IN UNPAID WAGES (JUNE 2012) **
Officials have announced they will study evidence that X Factor has been employing unpaid interns, after Graduate Fog exposed the story last week. We have also demanded a public apology from Simon Cowell, if it is found that the programme has broken the law. This would send a clear message to big businesses that it is not okay to exploit their young staff.
Following our correspondence with several representatives for the programme, the broadcasting union BECTU felt there was enough evidence to request an official investigation by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the body responsible for enforcing the minimum wage law for interns. A spokesperson confirmed that HMRC have agreed to study the evidence – and told the Guardian today:
“We take allegations of this nature very seriously. Our statutory duty of confidentiality means we cannot discuss individual cases, but every complaint we receive regarding the national minimum wage is looked into.”
Last night, BECTU’s website said:
“BECTU was concerned that news of the alleged abuse, just 48 hours before the screening of the X Factor final, would make a successful referral to the HMRC difficult. However BECTU has been advised that if the HMRC does decide to investigate it can do so retrospectively; in fact where an employer is found to have behaved unlawfully, payments for affected staff can be ordered up to six years in arrears. All employers are required to keep records of payments to staff going back at least three years.
“BECTU is one of several organisations working to counter the exploitation of workers engaged under the guise of ‘volunteer’ arrangements, ‘work experience’ or ‘internship’. An increasing number of employers, right across the economic spectrum, use these alternative labels to deny workers their right to be paid even the low level national minimum wage.”
HMRC may value confidentiality above all else but given the seriousness of these allegations we think it is essential that the outcome of this investigation is made public – and not hushed up. BECTU agrees with us, and have insisted they will pursue this case relentlessly, for which we thank them. We are also confident that the Guardian will pursue this doggedly.
If you haven’t been following our story this week, here’s what happened. We were first tipped off about four unpaid interns working on set by Daily Mail columnist Liz Jones. In her piece Inside the X Factory she alleged that the inerns – working for X Factor stylist Laury Smith – were “exhausted and in tears.”
We then approached representatives for the X Factor Style Team, who confirmed that there were four “regular” interns (“occasionally more on show days – Saturday and Sunday”), who had been working on-set for the last three months. Their duties involved “organising contestant and dancer clothes, picking up, co ordinating at studio, pressing garments, customising garments and doing returns after the live shows” and their working hours were “generally 10-6ish” (“Later sometimes if on video/ studios far out of town like Teddington & Shepperton”). Despite being paid only “travel and food,” Smith insisted:
“They are a great group, they work hard and we really cherish them. It is a totally normal situation in the industry, they get great experience and are now really ready to be employed as fashion assistants, with a years worth of experience in 3 months and a great reference”.
When we then approached Talkback Thames – the production company behind X Factor – they insisted they were “not aware” of the existence of these interns and asked that we make it clearer in our editorial that “her [Smith’s] interns are not X Factor interns.” A second spokesperson insisted this had been “an isolated incident.”
We will, of course, keep Graduate Fog’s readers updated as this story progresses. In the meantime, we are grateful to everybody who has helped spread the word about this. If you’re tweeting about X Factor during the final, please tweet this AT THE START OF THE FIRST AD BREAK:
Disappointed to see #xfactor using unpaid interns – not everyone can afford to work for free: http://t.co/kjMKP08A #payinterns @simoncowell
Thanks!
*Should the outcome of this investigation be made public?
What do you make of HMRC saying they must keep the details confidential? Which is more important – X Factor’s right to keep its business dealings private, or the public’s right to know the outcome of this case? If it’s found that X Factor has been breaking the law, would you want to see Simon Cowell apologise?
Missed the original stories? Catch up here:
“employing unpaid interns”- contradiction in terms. They aren’t “employed” if they’re unpaid. That’s “a work experience placement”. Many students and graduates agree to this nationwide. In fact, media students and graduates are lucky to get any work experience at all, due to universities offering WAY too many courses compared to jobs. The fashion industry could be the same. Not my forte.
Matt, your understanding of what constitutes work under the terms of the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 is inaccurate. You are correct – not your forte.
When I was at uni it was generally understood that if you wanted to get a foot in the door you had to be prepared to do some work for free. Work experience placements in media (in 2001-2005 at least) were not easy to come by. It took me 3 years to find one. At no point did I ever expect to be paid. And I wasn’t. And neither were any of my classmates, who were lucky enough to find a placement. This is the reality. Most students don’t learn how to put their foot down and stand their ground, something which is a requirement in the media industry and is sadly lacking from university syllabuses- hence agreeing to long hours. This is really what W.E. is for- a taste of the industry and how it can be tough. Side-point: If employers now have to pay all W.E. students, this is going to DRASTICALLY limit the opportunities available. The industry- and you, Derrick, are being too black-and-white over the issue. There is a middle ground: agree the hours, don’t involve money, and stick to the agreement.
Matt, there is no middle ground according to the law – work experience doesn’t have to be paid for, again that’s defined and you don’t have to pay if its affiliated with a learning organisation, there is genuine learning going on and no tasks are undertaken ie. its shadowing, the examples above clearly demonstrate that this is work. I say again, the NMW law is clear on the distinction between work, work experience and volunteering, it doesn’t recognise the term ‘intern’, please take the time to read it.
Work is work and workers must be paid for it. You do want to make the world a better place for those that follow us don’t you?
More information on rights here… http://www.creativetoolkit.org.uk/home
Derrick in 2004 I worked for free at The Revolution radio station in Oldham. They taught me how to edit pre-recorded shows (which later went out on air), they had me finding contributors for quizzes, writing quiz questions and taught me how to arrange payment of music through PRS. Sometimes I had to stay late to get shows ready for air, and I was frequently the last person in the building. Using this hands-on unpaid work experience, which I agreed to do, I then wrote a dissertation for the honours component of my degree. My grade leaped from a pass to a 2:1. If I’d only have been watching someone else do this, I wouldn’t have picked it up and wouldn’t have the qualification I’ve got today. People learn more by doing than by just watching. Revolution is a very small radio station- smaller in 2004- and there was no way they had a budget to pay for untrained staff. Not even minimum wage. There are various ways of “making the world a better place”- sometimes this involves a little charity.
@Matt – thanks for commenting on this story – but I have to say that I agree with Derrick.
I would also warn against basing your views of this issue on your own experiences of ‘successful’ interning, particularly if that was some time ago. Like you, I have interned unpaid (in magazines) – and yes, it did prove to be a valuable experience, and I have since forged a good career for myself in that industry.
HOWEVER, I now realise how deeply unfair it was that I have benefited in this way – because my parents lived in London and could afford to support me while I worked for free. This was also a few years ago – around 2002/3 – and things have changed enormously since then. Also, I may not have felt exploited, but those magazines were benefiting from my unpaid labour. In only one was I not doing real work that was of real value.
Since I have been running this website, my mind has been made up on this issue – and I truly believe that if you heard the stories that I hear day in, day out from interns, you would come to the same conclusion. Becuase unpaid internships have become so commonplace – despite being illegal, in many cases – I believe there are now actually fewer paid jobs around for young people. Unpaid internships no longer lead to paid, permanent jobs – instead, they are replacing paid, permanent jobs. A huge number of employers are now using a ‘revolving door’ system for their interns, where one leaves and another replaces them. As many young people are discovering, there often is no job at the end of their unpaid internship. Instead, there are yet more unpaid internships.
I have heard the concern before that ‘banning’ unpaid internships would mean fewer opportunities for young people. As Derrick says, there is no need to ‘ban’ anything – we already have a NMW law, and in most cases that is sufficient to ensure that internships are never real jobs, dressed up as work experience (work shadowing is fine under the NMW law, it’s when that person has set hours and responsibilities and is doing real work that they are likely to become a ‘worker’ in the eyes of the law.) So really, we are only asking that an existing law is enforced. That shoudln’t be such a big ask.
So yes, there will be fewer unpaid internships, if the law is enforced. But at the moment we have a system the exploits and excludes the many – and benefits only a tiny few. Companies often claim that if they had to pay their interns, they simply wouldnt have them. All I can say is that that doesn’t fit with what I’m hearing from interns, who – 9 times out of 10, I’d say – are doing proper, valuable work with long hours and busy days…
It is not fair to ask young people to prop up failing businesses (and the economy as a whole). If there really is so little money in the pot, perhaps some of the senior execs could take a small pay cut, so that their junior staff can afford to eat?
At Graduate Fog, we believe that unpaid internships exploit those who do them and exclude those who can’t afford to do them.
Well said Tanya. I’ve done quite a few unpaid internships as well, and I think the employer definitely benefited much more than I did. I am all for “work shadowing” where the employer takes a job seeker under their wing and mentors them. Having an intern make spreadsheets and devise new social media strategies which result in an increase in user interaction (which is what I did), was something that a junior communications coordinator should have done. The argument is that we can’t get hired because we don’t have experience. It is interesting to note that although we are not good enough to be paid, our work is somehow good enough to represent the company. I interned for a politician and constantly saw my ideas represent the organization. How did this benefit me? I got to practice… something I could’ve gotten in a public relations program in school. Actually school provides more feedback.
So Matt, I would have to completely disagree with you as well. I think that you have some form of Stockholm-Syndrome and can’t figure out why you would sympathize with your employer. Tanya is 100% right, it is not the job of unpaid laborers to keep a business afloat. If you can’t afford childcare, then you don’t put them in daycare. You wouldn’t find a student looking to break into primary school teaching and give them the “privilege” of watching your kid for free.
The state of affairs has gotten ridiculous. Occasionally I participate in focus groups that pay about $35 per hour. I recently saw a posting for volunteers for a focus group. Really???? Why are companies becoming so cheap? It has to end!
It’s a simple equation labor=wage. No labor = no wage. You work to get paid, otherwise what’s your motivation?
Eva you were fortunate enough to go to a school where your program was good enough to equal a work placement. I wasn’t. My university taught me very little, I realised, once I started the radio placement (that I had to find off my own back). Once I’d finished my degree, a few months later, that short placement was the only real, worthwhile experience I had in Media. Everything I’d learned in university was already out of date. Your motivation should be real learning, which I certainly got at the radio station. I do agree with you, though, that once you graduate and need to pay bills, it’s unrealistic to expect someone to give up weeks of their life unpaid to get experience. Now a lot of companies are resorting to “work shadowing” opportunities, where people are only allowed to watch someone else do the job- and is still unpaid. This is now less benificial than traditional hands-on unpaid work experience.
Hiya Matt,
Actually my school was horrible, everything was theoretical and they offered you zero job help. If I could go back in time, I would’ve taken that public relations diploma that offered hands on experience instead of my bs degree that did nothing.
Every single internship I got was on my own. One was paid minimum wage (which was the best by far), two complete volunteer, the other travel expenses. Since I was living off my parents, I could afford to take two of the “opportunities”. The one this summer was a year after I graduated with a Minnesota Congressman. Because of that “experience” I now have credit card debt because the organization thought that my work was good enough to use, but not good enough to be paid for. I had to go out of pocket to travel their every day. Luckily I could stay with a family member so I didn’t have to pay rent, but food and expenses were expensive. And I couldn’t find just a regular job at Starbucks because I was “overqualified”. I may sound a bit bitter because I am. I felt used, exploited, and what’s more is that I didn’t get a job offer out of them. I actually left them mid internship to take a paid job back in Toronto.
It’s not just about the money, unpaid internships completely screw with your self worth. I felt so angry when I would see how this politician supposedly campaigned for job creation, but refused to create jobs in his own office. I couldn’t comprehend how they could pay a speaker $20,000 to speak at a Labor Day event, but couldn’t pay me or my colleagues $2,280 for part time work during the summer. One of my colleagues could barely afford her rent, but it was either work unpaid, or do absolutely nothing with her summer. We all wanted to work, and we all had the credentials. We brought a lot of value to the campaign office. My colleagues would get on the phone and solicit donations and get people to register and come out to events. I think it was our right to be paid for this labor.
*there every day
Have you interned unpaid for X Factor – or any other well-known TV show? 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!