VICTORY FOR INTERNS AS FIRST RECRUITMENT SITE PLEDGES TO REMOVE ANY ADVERTS FOR EXPLOITATIVE ROLES
*GRADUATE FOG EXCLUSIVE!*
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Monster.co.uk has become the first major UK recruitment website to pledge publicly that it will not support the advertisement of unpaid internships. The job board has announced that all postings must comply with the minimum wage law and any which do not will be removed from the site. (So if you spot any, just let them know!)
Monster.co.uk’s announcement comes following the news that Hazel Blears’ bill to make advertising unpaid internships illegal missed its scheduled second hearing on 2 February and will now be delayed indefinitely. The voluntary move by Monster shows its commitment to taking the lead on the issue, by making it clear that it will remove any job postings that do not comply with the minimum wage law. Andrew Sumner, Monster’s Managing Director, UK & Ireland, says:
“Monster fully supported the bill Hazel Blears proposed to clamp down on the promotion of unpaid internships. A healthy future economy relies on the investment businesses make in young people and we believe it’s important not to take advantage of those desperate to get a foot on the career ladder.
“We provide free advice via our UK site to make employers aware of the legalities surrounding unpaid internships and to ensure job seekers know what to expect from these placements. As a bare minimum, we insist in our terms and conditions that all job posts adhere to UK employment law. We vet and screen adverts placed on our site to advise our customers on compliance. And as an extra precaution Monster actively asks its users to report any suspicious job postings via a ‘report this job’ button. We will happily remove any postings that our users alert us to, if these are found not to comply with the minimum wage law.”
As regular readers will know, Graduate Fog has felt strongly for some time that a blanket ban on advertising unpaid internships would be hugely helpful for our campaign to make all internships pay at least the minimum wage. For too long, seeing adverts for unpaid internships posted all over the internet has given both employers and young people the distorted impression that the practice is legal, when it isn’t.
At present, too many people (both young jobseekers and employers) say to campaigners like us “But unpaid internships can’t be illegal – I see them advertised everywhere.” Currently, the widespread presence of these adverts undermines our fight, confuses the message and legitimises this illegal and damaging practice, which has proved to be a disaster for young jobseekers. We believe that removing these adverts would remove this confusion. Unfortunately, despite cross party support for Hazel Blears’ 10-minute rule bill suggesting these adverts be banned, its hearing seems to have been delayed indefinitely, after time ran out during its allocated session on 2 February.
Perhaps cynically, we had assumed that the recruitment websites would resist this move, claiming the quality, ethics and legality of the roles they advertise is not their responsibility. So we are impressed that Monster.co.uk is supporting young people by making it clear that unpaid internships that appear to break the minimum wage law will be removed from its site. The next question is: will the other job boards follow?
*NEXT! Find out what happens when we ask Milkround, TotalJobs, TargetJobs and the other big job boards to follow Monster’s lead! Follow us on Twitter @GraduateFog or find us on Facebook/GraduateFog. Or you can sign up to the Graduate Fog News Bundle (see right).
*ARE YOU IMPRESSED THAT MONSTER IS BACKING INTERNS?
Or is it long overdue? Should other websites do the same thing? Do recruitment websites have a responsibility not to facilitate the exploitation of young people — or is that purely down to employers? And should Hazel Blears try harder to get her 10-minute rule bill heard in Parliament, so that advertising unpaid internships is officially made illegal? PLEASE comment below to say what you think, as other job boards will be watching this space. Brief is fine!
Great! My uni, which job site you written about in the past regarding unpaid internships, has now announced they will no longer allow any advertising of unpaid internships! It feels like things are going in the right direction.
Thanks Matilda, so glad you agree that this is a significant day for interns!
(Which was your uni by the way? And when did they announce this?)
It is University of the Arts London ( http://creativeopportunities.arts.ac.uk/ ), they announced they will no longer allow if from the 2nd of April this year, so quite recently. I think you wrote about the ‘sales assistant internship’ at Brown’s which was advertised there, and then you got a quite bad reply from a represent at UAL. But it seems like they have taken responsibility now.
*Representant
Balenciaga! Not Brown’s, but I saw a similar ad from Brown’s there I remember. https://graduatefog.co.uk/2012/2066/balenciaga-internship/
Is this really such good news? Unpaid internships seem to be the only way to get experience. Nobody is willing to train employees these days – they want someone else to do that. Everyone wants experience yet nobody seems to want to provide it. Perhaps I should volunteer myself for workfare?!
@Unemployed Graduate
Yes, I think this is amazing news!
You’re right – internships are a great way to gain experiences, but in most cases now interns are doing so much proper work that their internship is actually a job – and jobs must be paid, for both legal and ethical reasons. NOT paying means that young people who do these internships get exploited – while those who can’t afford to do them are excluded. Unpaid internships seem harmless enough (helpful, even), but over time they’ve actually been really damaging for young people. Now we have a situation where young jobseekers are doing endless internships for longer and longer, with less and less chance of a job.
We’ve had discussions previously on Graduate Fog about this issue, and although there are some fears that not advertising internships could push internships ‘underground’ (meaning some might only be heard about by those with contacts), the consensus has been that something needs to change and this is a small, calculated risk worth taking. Because young people can’t go on as you are now. It’s just got too crazy!
@Matilda
Thanks, that’s really interesting. I might drop them an email : )
Not many comments here for some reason – it’s very unlike Foggers to be so quiet! But the signs suggest that you like this story – it looks like 78 people have Tweeted this link (a Graduate Fog record?!) and 32 have Liked it!
A quick update from the Graduate Fog Facebook page too:
12 people have Liked the story
and
there have been two comments:
From Eli Lefterova – “Well done!”
From Brian Day – “Monster, who are behind the government’s Universal Jobmatch website, or it should be called Universal Mismatch, since the number of specific keywords you have to enter just to get results for basic roles is mindboggling!”
Anyone else got anything to say? Surely I can’t be alone in thinking this is a very significant day!
@unemployed graduate
Sadly, employers have demonstrated extreme reluctance, consistently,in investing in any form of training, including providing sponsorship and placements for candidates at College/University.
However, the Monster Corporation which operates Universal Job Match on behalf of the DWP, whilst being a pathetic system, unfit for purpose, and which wasted £16.7Million of taxpayers money on a George Iain Duncan Smith indulgance, continues to advertise not only Unpaid Internships, but also alleged jobs which are subject to Zero Hour Contracts.
@Tanya
I’m just arriving at the very depressing conclusion that an unpaid internship might be the only way to get experience seeing as there is a complete unwillingness on the part of employers to invest in training and an oversupply of graduates. An unpaid internship amounts to the training for a lot of jobs these days. 🙁 Of course workers should be paid but what is my alternative? I’m currently on the dole and going nowhere!
Well done for Monster to finally making the move out of unpaid internships, but my university, University of London, the careers group is non profit, and stopped advertising for unpaid internships a long time ago on its jobOnline website. As a student, I prefer using the university careers website rather than commercial ones.
Tanya – it’s not working!!! Your flagship jobsite (Monster) iscarrying unpaid internships – http://jobview.monster.co.uk/Interested-in-Recruitment-Resourcer-Internship-Job-Job-North-West-London-London-UK-125583696.aspx
@Jasper Well spotted! Have you alerted Monster? There is a Report this job button on every advert, for exactly this kind of thing!
@Jasper Let me know if they don’t remove it
I’ve alerted Monster… And that link no longer works – looks like they have removed it!