Internships have been getting a bad press of late, with employment law solicitors and other campaigners claiming they are exploitative and often illegal. Whilst the employment law solicitors react angrily and express fear over the constant rise of the internship, the companies who use interns and very often, even the interns themselves, would argue that it’s more about experience than exploitation. So who is right?

The use of internships is more prevalent in some industries than others. One such industry is fashion. Recent media reports have included claims by some former fashion interns that they have previously been expected to work over twelve hour days for months on end with no real prospect of paid employment afterwards. Some interns even claim they and their counterparts outnumbered the actual paid staff in some establishments. This suggests that many companies, not just in the fashion industry, are relying too heavily on unpaid work by interns.

Employment law solicitors claim that, according to minimum wage legislation, companies could be acting illegally by neglecting to pay their interns. Calling someone an intern is not enough to avoid paying them, they say. Any person who is engaged on a regular basis for an extended period of time to carry out work which is core to the company must be considered an employee and therefore must be paid. Some employment law solicitors have dealt with cases of disgruntled former interns who were not paid and have won them backdated pay at the minimum wage. Unfortunately, such cases were not widely reported and did not set the legal precedent that had been hoped and the situation remains largely the same.

Campaigners claim that internships are actually responsible for the problem they claim to resolve: graduate unemployment. As more graduates are prepared to work for free, fewer entry level paid positions are available. After all, why would a company pay when a new graduate will do the job just as well for free?

Employment law solicitors continue to encourage employers to comply with minimum wage legislation concerning their interns. Additionally, they and many campaigners are calling for a fundamental change to the system, for example restricting how long a person can work unpaid. This, they hope, would lead to higher retention of former interns in paid, permanent roles.