Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER September 7, 2015 NEWS 11 e class ceiling How unpaid internships are strengthening socio-economic divides – and hurting business BY LIZ BERNIER Note: is is part one of a two-part report on interns. Part one takes a look at the business of unpaid internships, while part two will examine the bigger picture and corporate social responsibility implications. IT WAS a muddy night for David Hyde. e 22-year-old was forced to set up camp in less-than-desir- able weather after a storm soaked his usual campsite, he explained to a reporter from a Swiss news- paper following his story. But Hyde had to carry on — get dressed, pack his belongings and head to work. e camping wasn't just recreational, it was his porta- ble home — and the only one he could aff ord during his unpaid in- ternship with the United Nations. Hyde's situation is a striking ex- ample of a widely shared experi- ence for this generation of young workers. It's become a depressing, debt-inducing rite of passage for many new graduates — for the last decade or so, the unpaid in- ternship has been the fi nal gate- keeper barring entry to exclusive clubs in advertising, media and entertainment. With more workers than jobs, many employers in competitive fi elds are having a fi eld day with the concept, hiring unpaid interns to do work that would otherwise have been done by full-time workers. But the issue seems to have reached a tipping point, with more and more advocates draw- ing attention to how organiza- tions benefi t in the short term at the expense of the interns — and also, perhaps, at the expense of their own future success. Unpaid internships are a phe- nomenon that has become so naturalized, people think they've been around forever, said Ross Perlin, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based au- thor of Intern Nation. "They identify it with ap- prenticeships and co-operative education and other forms of the school-to-work transitions that have existed for longer. But, really, internships are a new phenome- non, something that has emerged in their current forms in the last few decades," he said. "On the one hand, you have companies that were originally looking to develop training and recruitment programs and cap- ture some of the best young tal- ent; on the other hand, you have this whole world of experiential education coming out of colleges and universities wanting to sort of go beyond the classroom. Both of those impulses are coming from good places." In the earlier days, this gener- ally resulted in good internships that were paid and actually led di- rectly to jobs, he said — but that's no longer the case. "That's now changed into something that all too often is a precarious labour phenomenon," said Perlin. "We're now at the point where internships have be- come kind of the gateway into the white-collar workforce… and are really beginning to constitute a barrier to entry for many." Pressure heating up As awareness spreads about the negative consequences of unpaid internships, businesses and gov- ernments alike have faced mount- ing pressure to change policies around the practice. "We have a lot of very highly skilled individuals graduating from universities and colleges. Unpaid internships obviously don't generate any income for these individuals, and we know that more and more of these students are graduating with sig- nifi cant levels of debt," said Anne MacPhee, CFO at Career Edge in Toronto. "So it's kind of a very nasty cycle they can get into where they need the experience for a job, they can't EMPLOYERS > pg. 24 In their own words "You would work a 16-hour shift and then be required to work yet another eight-hour shift just so that you would make your 'requirement.' Myself and others were treated like mule horses. There were also staff members that were kind of like spies so when you went to the bar to 'unwind' there would be someone that would go to report you to HR." "I was working for a major production company as an unpaid intern. I worked 32 hours a week and was treated like a minion. To start out with, they had about fi ve interns of all ages. Two of us were doing maximum hours. The others did a couple hours here and there. There were over 30 assistants and around 10 executives. Each assistant would send you on ridiculous tasks. Drive to the Warner Brothers lot which was about 30 min away. Everything in L.A. was 30 min away. You received $0.05 per mile which doesn't help at all and is actually an insult." "I still relied on unemployment benefi ts to sustain me… Meanwhile, I was working beyond the agreed upon two days a week. The boss included my personal mobile number in my email signature and when I pitched ideas I had to work on them 'in my own time.'" Source: InternAnonymous

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