Meet the Bank of America Intern Who Was Literally Worked to Death

Moritz Erhardt

Just a short post today about an extremely disturbing incident that surfaced in the British media today. All the major London dailies are reporting on the death of Moritz Erhardt, who was found dead by his roommates. This young man was a summer intern within the investment banking division of Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Some reports indicate that Mr. Erhardt was forced to work 21-hour days in the days leading up to his death and that interns in the investment banking division regularly worked until 4:00 a.m. One particularly insidious practice forced upon interns in that of the "magic roundabout" where a taxi takes the intern home, waits while they change and shower, and then delivers them back to the office for another day of work.

One of the key points that I raise in my advocacy work around the issue of internships is the vast power differential that exists between interns and their employers. This imbalance is only magnified in high-status industries such as politics, law, or banking where the rewards for toughing out 100+ hour weeks is a highly lucrative position. A common problem in high-status industries is that employment standards provisions relating to hours of work and rest periods are routinely ignored. These protections are meant to protect the physical and mental health of workers, but these protections are useless unless backed up with strong enforcement.

As sad as this situation is it won't be the last time an intern dies in the course of their duties. Interns have died in Canada and the United States under similar circumstances. Governments around the world must acknowledge the plight that young workers face and respond with appropriate levels of enforcement that reduces the high level of exploitation currently occurring.