Unpaid Interns: Real World Work Or Just Free Labor?
Two former unpaid interns have filed a class-action lawsuit against Fox Searchlight Pictures, a film production company for which they worked on the film Black Swan. According to a 50-year-old Supreme Court decision, interns could only remain unpaid for work performed strictly for training purposes. Both interns claim there was no training involved with the work they were given, and that they are no closer to a foothold in the film industry than when they started, and were hired just to provide free labor. Employment experts say that companies have been skirting the law for years with impunity, and that the suit may provide an important benchmark for the status of future interns across all industry.
See "Unpaid Interns: Real World Work Or Just Free Labor?", Beenish Ahmed, NPR Online, November 13, 2011