Why can't Sarah Thomson pay her interns?

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).

Sarah Thomson

The advertisement states that the intern will be "learning the ropes of copy editing, producing content, sales, and all the ins and out of working in a publishing environment". The language arguably raises the prospect of wage theft, employee misclassification, and multiple breaches of the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (read the MOL's guidelines here). I should note that this isn't the first ad I've seen from the Women's Post looking for interns - it seems that the Women's Post uses a revolving cast of interns. There's a deeper question in the offing though: why would a person with political ambitions see it fit to not pay young people working for them? This is particularly pressing question as the employers in this case are incredibly wealthy. 

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.

Unpaid internships bad for economy, young workers

The prevalence of unpaid internships is growing, but typically these positions are illegal and violate the minimum employment standards. It has been estimated that young workers engage in over 300,000 illegal unpaid internships every year across Canada and collectively forego tens of millions of dollars in wages, vacation pay and contributions to Employment Insurance and Canadian Pension Plan.

Internships have existed in some form since the 19th century, but have only been thrust into the public consciousness over the past few years. Originally, internships were a variation on the American version of the apprenticeship model and a means of rapidly training young workers for entry into a trade or profession. What began in medicine slowly entered a limited number of elite, male-dominated professions (such as politics and public administration) in the early 20th century.made

Over the past 20 years there was some growth in the prevalence of unpaid internships in the world of journalism, fashion and publishing; however, these positions were the exception rather than the rule. In the wake of the global financial crisis, many employers in a large number of industries used the bad economy as an excuse to cut labour costs and begin exploiting young workers via the use of unpaid labour.

Unpaid internships have a direct impact on the economy through contributing to youth unemployment, driving down wages, slowing economic growth and allowing employers to replace paid employees with unpaid, misclassified ones. Profound equality questions also arise from unpaid internships, given that these positions privilege wealthy students over poorer ones, predominantly target female-dominated occupations, exacerbate income inequality and force young people to take on higher levels of debt to sustain unpaid work.

Students and young graduates are sold the idea of working for free with promises of experience, references, networking opportunities, acquiring new skills and the “potential” of an eventual, paying position. Most of the time internships do not act as a door to stable, secure employment as apprenticeships or entry-level jobs often do. For a lucky few, unpaid internships can lead to a well-paying job, but for the vast majority of youths, internships only lead to insecurity, precarity and alienation from the labour market.

Locally, many prominent organizations use unpaid interns — examples include UBC, the U.S. State Department, the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, the Vancouver Whitecaps, St. Joseph Media and the Vancouver Aquarium. It does not appear that the use of unpaid interns in B.C. has reached the epidemic levels seen in Toronto, New York, London or Washington; however, it is clear that thousands of young workers in B.C. face exploitative conditions where they are illegally misclassified as unpaid interns.

Under British Columbia’s Employment Standards Act ("the ESA") unpaid internships are prohibited and there is a strict prohibition on unpaid work. Under the ESA, all work, defined as providing labour or services to an employer, must be remunerated at the minimum wage or higher. The Employment Standards Branch has even issued an explicit policy interpretation on internships stating that if the intern undertakes work for an employer then they are considered an employee for the purposes of the ESA.

An example of an illegal situation would be a recent graduate working as an unpaid intern for a public relations firm writing press releases, answering phone calls and responding to emails. Another example of a prohibited situation would be a student working as an unpaid intern over the summer break for a non-profit organization writing grant applications, developing a donor database and soliciting donations from local businesses. In both examples the intern is actually an employee and entitled to the minimum wage.

Conversely, students completing practicums as part of a formal course of study leading to a certificate, diploma or degree are not considered employees and excluded from the ESA. In these situations students need to be supervised and engaged in “hands-on” training, and the practicum needs to be related to the student’s course of study. An example of this situation would be a student-teacher enrolled in a bachelor of education degree and undertaking a classroom placement as part of their training.

It should be noted that interns and students are also protected under other workplace law such as the Workers Compensation Act, the Human Rights Code and the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation. These are critical protections as young workers often face unsafe situations or are subjected to workplace harassment (particularly sexual harassment).

Remember: you have the right to be paid minimum wage and to work free of discrimination in a safe environment. If you find yourself in a legally questionable internship, here are some tips: keep hard copies of all information, emails, documents, initial job application and any feedback you receive; keep a daily log of your duties, start/end times and breaks; ask that any remuneration occur via cheque or direct deposit; and keep copies of a final work product and drafts. Here are some contacts: Employment Standards Branch (1-800-663-3316); B.C. Human Rights Tribunal (1-888-440-8844); and, WorkSafeBC (1-888-621-7233).

Note: this article originally appeared in the Ubyssey and appears here with some minor modifications. In the near future I will be following up on this piece with a comprehensive review of the law in British Columbia.

Youth and Work in the Toronto Star Discussing Unpaid Interns & Precarious Work

Yesterday I was quoted in an article appearing in the Toronto Star discussing the linkages between unpaid internships and precarious work. From what I've been told the article generated a lot of reader comments and was the top story for most of the day; furthermore, it has generated an interesting Reddit discussion. Two other legal commentators were also featured in the article: Professor David Doorey, a labour law scholar at York University, and Nav Bhandal, a Mississauga employment law lawyer.

For some of my previous analysis on the topic of unpaid internships see: "The Legality of Unpaid Internships in Ontario"; "Australian Government Tackles Unpaid Internships"; "Generation Free: Are universities perpetuating inequality by promoting unpaid, precarious work"; and, "Why can't Bell Canada pay its interns?". Also, take a listen to talk that I gave at Ryerson University back in the fall of 2012, see:

The Devil Pays Nada

There's a youth exploitation industry in Toronto and I want to introduce everyone to its newest entrant: Springtern. I recently stumbled upon this company, founded by Ben Wise and Ronald Lam, and was floored by the unabashed exploitation that it's perpetrating against young workers. Springtern's business model is simple: it advertises jobs directed at students and young workers for companies. There's just one hitch: few, if any, of the jobs advertised on Springtern are paid positions.

The law in Ontario (and the rest of Canada) is quite clear. If a person is performing work for a for-profit (or non-profit in most jurisdictions) enterprise then they must be compensated for their labour at the rate of the minimum wage or higher. Simply put, an employer cannot contract out of employment standards legislation via an agreement with an employee. At the core of Springtern's business model sits the illegal practice of contracting out of the social minima contained in employment standards statutes.

Springtern attempts to subvert the "problem" of employment standards by attempting to frame the advertised jobs as "volunteer" positions and by using an "Intern Waiver of Liability Form" that states the interns will be paid only in the "experience and training gained by working". The foregoing is a mildly creative attempt at contracting out of employment standards, but still incredibly at odds with core principles of Canadian employment law and the current case law on unpaid labour. The companies using Springtern's services are setting themselves up for litigation given the rather blatant flouting of the prevailing employment standards law.

Now what kind of companies would enter into such an arrangement? Take a look at the listings on Springtern's website. The companies listing "jobs" on Springtern seem to be a smattering of small fly-by-night Internet marketing and social media outfits. While some of the jobs are relatively small, others require 500+ hours to complete (check out the particularly egregious ones from RaeAllan aka Bobby Umar). All of the jobs posted are unpaid and call for duties that employees are typically paid to complete. None of these practices are normal, rather what's being framed as opportunities for youths is really nothing more than gussied up slave labour.

In closing, drop Springtern an email and tell them what you think about their business model. Finally, take a peek at some of my recent musings on the deployment of unpaid labour in Canada's labour markets: here, here, here, and here.