Ana Bailão, the embattled City of Toronto Councillor for Ward 18, has been advertising for a number of unpaid internship positions to assist her "core office functions and special projects" (the advertisement appears below). Councillor Bailão is following in the rich history of other Ontario politicians who have exploited young workers. Over the last three years I've documented various breaches of workplace law at different levels of government, see: Liberal MPP Laura Albanese, the former Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Labour illegally used interns; Sarah Thomson, the one time Mayoral candidate, exploits young journalists at the Women's Post by illegally misclassifying as interns; and, Rob Ford, Mayor of Toronto, engaged in wage theft to squeeze unpaid overtime out of his political aides in the 2010 municipal election.
The positions that Councillor Bailão is advertising for simply are not legal. She wants persons that can make a minimum commitment of 8 to 16 hours a week. The duties of the positions are: socia media monitoring; drafting letters and other correspondence; data cataloguing; canvassing; event coordination; research on local and city-wide policy initiatives; translation; delivering event notices; community asset mapping; and, completing forms and graphic templates.
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| Councillor Ana Bailão |
What Councillor Bailão wants is free labour for the summer, but that isn't possible under the Employment Standards Act, 2000. What is described in the advertisement doesn't fall under any of the exclusions enumerated under the ESA; particularly, these positions would not fall under the exclusion enumerated under ss. 1(2) of the ESA as the interns would be providing a substantial benefit to Councillor Bailão and the City of Toronto through the provision of their labour. Beyond the law, the question is why would a politician feel it was appropriate to request young people to work for free?
Now, one might be wondering what benefits Councillor Bailão will bestow on her unpaid slaves interns? Well, the interns stand to gain inside information, referrals, recommendations, a letter of reference, and professional experience. These internships are a great example of the "pay to play" mentality that is pervasive in intern culture - the person provides free labour for the opportunity of exposure to a certain industry. It also highlights how internships are inaccessible to large segments of the youth population who aren't wealthy enough to engage in prolonged periods of unpaid labour.
The actions of Councillor Bailão are problematic on a number of fronts. She's contributing to the high youth unemployment rate in Toronto through undercutting the labour market and driving down wages for young workers. Next, she is leaving the City of Toronto open to legal liability via breaches of the ESA, but also by exposing the city to the possibility of a class action lawsuit (Bailão clearly isn't the only person using unpaid interns at City Hall). Finally, she sets a very poor example for others in the community as in not paying her interns the minimum wage she's essentially stating that their work has no value.
Toronto has an abundance of educated young people, but if their talents aren't put to use there will be any number of negative impacts on our economy. Poor youth labour market outcomes are associated with any number of social ills such as higher crime, weaker economic growth, and lack of political engagement. Currently in Toronto there are very serious problems with youth un(der)employment, the lack of good jobs, and increasing numbers of youths being forced to engage in precarious employment. It's a shame that politicians like Ana Bailão appear ignorant of one the greatest challenges facing Canada at present: finding stable, secure employment for young Canadians.
In closing, here's some articles discussing youth unemployment in Toronto, see: here, here, and here. The advertisement from Ana Bailão appears below, see:
Nice blog…!
ReplyDeleteAs an previous intern to the Councillor, I can personally say that you have misinterpreted the volunteer opportunity posed by the Councillor. Many students have been placed with various Toronto City Councillors as part of their experiential learning program at their respective universities. This provides students with an invaluable opportunity to gain first hand professional experience within municipal politics, an opportunity that otherwise many students would not have had the chance. It provides students with transferable skills that they may integrate into their academic career and is an excellent networking opportunity for students to leverage their own professional career development. I have nothing but positive experiences with my work with Councillor Ana Bailão and I would recommend this internship to any student who wishes to gain first hand experience within Toronto City Hall.
ReplyDeleteI find this article deeply disturbing and hypocritical because of this individuals who made a big fuss about underpaid workers...So paying students nothing is being a good citizen...? It is disgraceful and clearly all the politicians should be reported....Exploitation of labours by a politician who feels she does not have to cater to employment law....If you had a real name and disclosed your name than we would take you seriously...We don't.A complaint has been filed with the Premier's office, the mayor's office and the Ministry of Labour..We have had quite enough of hypocrisy from Ana Bailao who should resign.
DeleteLangille here.
ReplyDeleteI have a few points in response. First, let me unequivocally state that I have misinterpreted nothing in relation to the internships being offered by Councillor Bailão. This is a textbook example of wage theft and misclassification. The unpaid interns are doing work in relation to "core functions" of her office - this is work that people typically receive remuneration for in Ontario.
I'm certainly not disputing that internships provide valuable experience to students or recent graduates. I've been quite consistent in acknowledging through my public comments and academic research that internships are a valuable tool in the school-to-labour market transition. The problem with Councillor Bailão's internship program is that it violates the provisions contained in the Employment Standards Act, 2000 governing the payment of minimum wage and the prohibition of contracting out of the minimum standards. The City of Toronto is the sixth largest government in Canada and clearly has the resources to pay interns. The creation of conditions where it is permissible to not pay young workers is simply unacceptable.
Next, I would point out that the unpaid internship privilege people from wealthier backgrounds and contributes to income inequality. Given the enormous problems arising from income inequality in the Greater Toronto Area (and Canada for that matter) it's very dangerous to give a prominent organization a "pass" to exploit young workers because the experience is invaluable, provides excellent networking opportunities, or is a positive experience. Unpaid internships, as a type of employment, clearly discriminate against persons from lower socio-economic backgrounds, who are racialized, who are female, or who are recent immigrants.
Finally, it's ridiculous that universities have created cheap (i.e. free) pools of labour for employers to exploit. While there is definitely room for experiential learning within the post-secondary education sector the current situation is extremely dangerous for labour market development and economic growth. In pushing a human capital agenda the post-secondary education sector is contributing to harmonizing down of employment standards, driven down wages, and caused untold damage to the overall labour market. None of the foregoing are particularly good developments for today's students or young workers.
post secondary education is contributing to inequality. they are responsible for the current internship cancer that is spreading. employers no longer want to train and invest in workers they just download training to colleges and universities which are nothing more than monuments of inequality.
Deletehttp://chronicle.com/article/Has-Higher-Education-Become-an/132619/
this stinks of a hatchet job. if it's true that she's "clearly not the only one using unpaid interns" at city hall, why are you focussing on her?
ReplyDeleteI'd love for you to identify your city hall affiliations, Andrew. Who and what are they?
Langille here. Fair questions. In response to the first question: Councillor Bailão is publicly advertising the internships and I recently found the posting on York University's career services website while hunting for evidence of RBC using unpaid interns. I can't write about what other city councillors are doing because I need evidence to do so, but it's common knowledge that what Councillor Bailão is doing happens with alarming regularity at city hall. If you have evidence of other councillors using unpaid interns then please drop me a line as I will write about them. In response to the second question: I have no City Hall affiliations and if you bothered to read my website you find that my interest in unpaid internships is purely professional and academic.
ReplyDeleteWho are they, Anonymous? You don't name names, you're hiding behind an anon account, and you're attacking the messenger's motives rather than addressing the substance of his argument. Why don't you put up or shut up?
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to chip in about universities and interships....
ReplyDeleteI studied architecture back in the late 90s/early 2000s at the Technical U of Nova Scotia/Dalhousie which is a coop program with 2 work terms where students do interships.
No one in the program to my knowledge worked (or even now would work) for free. I also took time off between the bachelor and masters and worked an intership position for which I got paid.
To the student who worked for the councillor for free and was happy to get the experience I say....you got ripped off and I recommend you talk to a lawyer to see if you can sue for wages. I really can't think of a situation where working for free is worth it. Students bring skills and all the knowledge they've learned from public school and university/college and that has value. In this example the councillor isn't offering to teach someone how to read and write so why wouldn't they get paid to draft letters?
@causalitybrunch
Totally agreed with Andrew. Unpaid work as a means to benefit from inexperienced or young talent is offensive. Andrew's city hall affiliations or leanings may be (if any) are irrelevant as the improperly unpaid nature of Ana's
ReplyDeleteThere certainly is a place for volunteerism and unpaid work, but it cannot replace paid work and the focus must remain on training the intern rather than creating value for the employer. Many legal internship programs pay their interns. The PEY internship program at U of T pays its interns an average annual salary of $44k. BMO's Bank-wide Student Training Program pays its interns (at least $30k based on my conversations with interns). I've interned through both programs to gained all aforementioned internship benefits of being mentored, gaining experienced, and building my network. Beyond remunerated me for my work and not marginalizing talent who cannot afford to work without pay, these programs also give interns an understanding of the value of their work -- to create a base or range of pay from which we can negotiate our future starting salaries. Understanding the value you create is just as important as being capable of creating it.
Volunteerism and the amount of it in Canada is amazing. I volunteer avidly for all the reasons above and because I'm passionate about it. There definitely is a place for unpaid work especially those that drive the non-profit sector, but it cannot displace work normally paid for nor can employers be allowed to benefit much (if at all) from the internship.
The Ministry of Labour maintains guidelines around how to determine if an unpaid internship or volunteer role is legal:
http://www.labour.gov.on.ca/english/es/pubs/is_unpaidintern.php
There is a difference though in completing work for co-op requirements and experiential learning through a university credit course. From my experience at Western University it is against university code of conduct for students to receive compensation or gift when completing the required hours for a university credit course. I think that factor should be considered when examining the interns used in the aforementioned political offices. Also, as a poli sci student I am wondering, what difference is it volunteering on a political campaign vs. volunteering in a political office? Both is done without pay and to my knowledge the majority of those who worked on leadership campaigns, most recently the provincial Liberal campaign, did so without pay.
ReplyDeleteWhere do you draw the line? Potentially they were doing "core office functions" as well, but as an intern, wouldn't you prefer to be integrated into the office tasks vs. only do mundane administrative jobs (ex: photocopying, filing etc). I think that professional work experience would be a lot more beneficial.
Then maybe the bigger question is if students need this experience or mentoring, shouldn't it be then the government's responsibility to give students the proper education and funding grants so they can afford these experiences?
ReplyDeleteThe bigger question here is how can the Ontario government allow the exploitation of graduates who cannot find jobs in Ontario yet are being exploited for unpaid internships by politicians in both the Ontario and the city of Toronto....? Highest secondary educational feels with over 650000 Ontario government unions and bureaucrats hired and yet no one to enforce labour regulations in Ontario...UNBELIEVABLE.
ReplyDeleteDid Ana Bailão or anyone proof read the summer intern job posting before it was published online?
ReplyDeleteI find it ridiculous and insulting that Councillor Ana Bailão's office is seeking an intern with a Bachelors degree with honours (preferably), when no one in her office or even the Councillor herself took an extra five minutes to review what they published online.
'Working from Toronto City Hall and occasionally within Ward 18, summer interns will have an opportunity TO gain valuable experience and exposure to City of Toronto functions in the areas of citizen engagement, community event production, transportation, affordable housing, parks and recreation, local business improvement, land-use planning and other initiatives.'
Education: pursuing or recently graduate FROM (?) College Certificate, Bachelors, Masters degrees.
Did you mean, 'pursuing or recently graduate with a College Certificate, Bachelors, Masters degree' ?
Also, that is not a list of qualifications, the items listed are duties attached to the summer intern position.
What is particularly odious about this whole incident is that Ana Bailão has demonstrated incredible inconsistency about the factors that lead to stagnant wages and deteriorating work conditions. A little over a year ago, she was the Councillor who expressed considerable concern when a group of City cleaners faced the prospect of having their positions contracted out. Then in the recent Sanctuary City discussion, she said that illegal (or "undocumented" if that is your preferred term) immigrants only do jobs that others "don't want to do". I'm not for snitching on illegal workers -- BUT neither am I for encouraging unscrupulous employers to exploit vulnerable workers, thereby driving down wages/working conditions for cleaners, construction workers, etc. who need these jobs to support their families. Sympathy for the undocumented should not blind us to the negative effects that "looking the other way" has on wages paid to cleaners, etc. in the private sector. By the same token, allowing unpaid internships, such as the one posted by this Councillor, accelerates the increasingly precarious nature of employment in our society. WHY is there no regulatory framework in place to ensure this doesn't happen... and if there is, WHY isn't it doing what it's supposed to? We we fail to enforce the minimum workforce regulations, is it any wonder that, according to a recent study, half of employees in the GTA/Hamilton area are in "precarious" work.
ReplyDeleteYou know what your problem is Langille? You are so negative and you paint everyone with the same brush.
ReplyDeleteWe have had unpaid interns who learned a great deal from us. Each of them are thankful for the experience they received, the references, and resulting career success. Some professionals are kind-hearted and generously take time to teach young people skills, when they could easily do the work themselves in a fraction of the time. We may not always have budget to pay them, but we give our time.
But activists like you will deter many of us from helping them. So you are doing a disservice to the young people you are trying to protect. Shame.
Langille here. Boo-fucking-hoo. The only disservice I'm doing is to exploitive employers who want free labour from young workers.
ReplyDelete