Big Victory for Unpaid Interns in the United States

The Eric Glatt, et al., v. Fox Searchlight Pictures, Inc. lawsuit was one of the first cases in United States contesting the practice of corporations using unpaid interns. The case was started back in 2011 when two interns, Eric Glatt and Alex Footman, decided to sue for unpaid wages for their work on the set of the Hollywood blockbuster Black Swan.

Yesterday there was an interim decision in the case from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Justice William Pauley III held that both Glatt and Footman were employees under New York state and Federal labour law; additionally, class certification was granted in case. This is a huge victory for the burgeoning global intern rights movement and a blow to the exploitative (and often illegal) utilization of unpaid internships within the United States' labour markets.

I'm not going to review the decision in detail, but you can peruse it at your leisure here. Steven Greenhouse, the New York Times labour reporter, wrote a good article on the decision. Professor David Yamada, one of the pioneering voices around internships, wrote a great blog post about the decision over at his New Workplace blog. Finally, my friend Maurice Pianko wrote a blog post about the decision and for any disgruntled interns he's actively looking to represent interns across the United States.

A spokesperson for Fox Searchlight Pictures, Inc. stated the company was "very disappointed" in the decision and that they would likely appeal Justice Pauley's findings. Regardless of whether this case is appealed I suspect that this decision is going to have major ramifications across corporate America given that employers will become aware that there are risks (both reputationally and monetary) from using unpaid interns in contravention of minimum labour standards.

The attorneys at Outten & Golden LLP representing the interns deserve special recognition for fighting tooth and nail to achieve some semblance of justice; furthermore, the plaintifs Eric Glatt and Alex Footman should be commended for launching this lawsuit suit in the face of considerable risks. A big congratulations goes out to everyone involved. It's clear that advocacy (and litigation) efforts are starting to have a noticeable impact on exposing unpaid internships for what they are: one of the most exploitative forms of labour ever conceived in the modern era. Take a look this interview with Elizabeth Wagoner, one of attorneys from Outten & Golden LPP, discussing the case back in 2011.