Update: Sarah Thomson had one of her writers lackeys write a mea culpa of sorts (read it here). It's quite bizarre and terribly written, but seems par for course in Sarah Thomson's lalaland.
What's up with politicians (and wannabe politicians) asking young people to work for free? Three years back I caught Nick Kouvalis (Rob Ford's campaign manager) bragging about committing wage theft and then in January I caught Liberal MPP Laura Albanese (ex-Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Labour) advertising for an illegal, unpaid internship. Today I stumbled upon a Craiglist advertisement from the Women's Post looking for an unpaid intern (screenshot above). Unbelievably, the ad states "yes, we know unpaid internships suck", yet it goes on to state that the interns will only receive transit costs and a letter of reference.
The Women's Post is owned by Sarah Thomson (Toronto's favourite dreadlocked hippie) and her husband Greg Thomson. Sarah is also the former mayoral candidate, the former Liberal candidate in Trinity-Spadina, and a freshly-minted transit advocate. Greg is a member of plutocrat Thomson family (they own Thomson Reuters, The Globe and Mail, and The Woodbridge Company).
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| Sarah Thomson |
Unpaid internships aren't a positive development for our economy, rather this type of precarious employment is exactly the opposite. Unpaid internships unfairly target young female workers, exacerbate income inequality, privilege wealthy students over poorer ones, give companies that use them an unfair competitive advantage, and drive down wages across the labour market. None of these are trends that should be encouraged. I for one would like to see the Ministry of Labour take enforcement action against the Women's Post and ensure that employment standards are being adhered to. Beyond this, it should be stated that there is nothing normal with refusing to pay young workers a wage - this goes to person's character and is a indicator of whether they are fit to hold public office.
I just wrote this letter to the Women's Post who advertised on craigslist for an unpaid internship - hope I get a response!
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To the Women's Post Team,
I am writing in response to your advertisement on Craigslist for a "Women's Post online intern."
My name is Claire Seaborn and I am a law student at the University of Ottawa. I am also the founder of the Canadian Intern Association - we advocate against the exploitation of unpaid interns and aim to improve the internship experience for interns and employers.
I would like to express my discontent with the Women's Post offering this position. First, unpaid internships are typically against the law in Ontario and based on your advertisement, it looks like this position will not meet Ontario's employment standards. Second, unpaid internships disproportionately and negatively affect women. I would like to draw your attention to an article I wrote that discusses why unpaid internships are a gendered issue.
On behalf of the Canadian Intern Association, I suggest that you either pay your intern Ontario's minimum wage ($10.25 per hour) or meet the guidelines for unpaid internships under section 2 of the Employment Standards Act.
Given that the Women's Post is a magazine designed for professional women, I also encourage you to publish a piece about the illegality of unpaid internships and their impact on women.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions.
Claire Seaborn
Chair
Canadian Intern Association
I think it's section 1(2) [not section 2].. but great letter!
ReplyDeleteYou are correct. The relevant parts of the ESA are the definition of employee under subs. 1(1) and the six-part test under subs. 1(2). Clearly my readers are getting an education on the legalities of unpaid internships in Ontario.
ReplyDeleteThis is clearly photoshopped...
ReplyDeleteNo photoshopping was involved. I wouldn't put my professional reputation or open myself up to litigation to take a cheap shot at Sarah Thomson. Beyond that, given the high number of unpaid internships in Ontario I don't really need to cook up examples of companies exploiting unpaid interns. I typically look at the Toronto Craiglist ads once or twice a week to get a sense of what is out there and finding questionable posting is like shooting fish in a barrel.
ReplyDeleteWhat really irks me, beyond the obvious, is this I-did-it-and-now-I'll-do-it-to-you attitude about internships. "We've all been there." Yeah, you've been there, working for nothing, and now you're going to hire someone else for free as some kind of white collar rite of passage. It's like a sick ritual to weed out the have-nots from certain industries.
ReplyDelete"We've all been there" - this is a lie. Don't ever let anyone tell you that your parents or grandparents had to do unpaid internships; that's a load of BS. We were all paid at least minimum wage. In my day, there was no such thing as an unpaid internship, and I went through the education system in Ontario from K to post-secondary. This unpaid internship phenomenon is recent and since it's becoming a widespread practice, people think it has always been thus.
DeleteYoung people should never work for nothing (unless it is studies-related as stipulated in the ESA). You won't be respected by the exploiter nor will you be by future employers. I'm glad to learn of the Canadian Intern Association's fight-back campaign (see Claire Seaborn's comment and letter) and support it whole-heartedly as well as this blog. This exploitation has to be exposed and stopped.
Sophia: yes, unpaid internships seem to be a revolving door at a lot of companies in Toronto and there are clearly deep class implications arising out of this type of employment. PLA: unpaid internships have been around for over a hundred years in Canada. The use of unpaid internships has grown exponentially over the past few years in the wake of the global financial crisis. Beyond this, unpaid internships are directly linked to many of the neoliberal labour market reforms that were implemented in Ontario (and many other jurisdictions) over the past three decades.
ReplyDeleteThe post advertising the unpaid intern position at Woemen's Post did exist but since has been deleted http://toronto.en.craigslist.ca/tor/wri/3697318217.html
ReplyDeleteHere are the Ontario regulations regarding unpaid internships and it does look like the ad violated the rules http://www.labour.gov.on.ca/english/es/pubs/is_unpaidintern.php
The link goes nowhere.
ReplyDeleteYou're not in much of a place to deride the writing of others.
I am shocked as an employment recruiter and Ontario taxpayer that someone like this who has total disregard for employment provincial labour laws in Ontario can run as a Ontario MPP. Disgust and flagrant misuse of Ontario labour laws while married to one of the richest families in Canada.... Offensive.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.facebook.com/#!/notes/r-jacqueline-dsouza/my-open-letter-to-former-mayoral-candidate-sarah-thomson/10151514823813214
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