The Results of the Ministry of Labour's Unpaid Internship Inspection Blitz

Ontario's Ministry of Labour (MOL) has released the results of the inspection blitz targeting employers using unpaid interns in the Greater Toronto Area. The inspection blitz occurred from April 1, 2014, to June 15, 2014, with fifty-six (56) inspections occurring over that period. The industries focused on were: advertising; public relations; computer systems design; consulting services; and, information services. I'm going to briefly analyze the data and provide some insight.

The MOL broke down the results as follows: eight (8) employers had no internship programs; thirteen (13) employers had internship positions that were all exempt (i.e. fell into the academic exclusion or professional trainee exclusion); five (5) employers had internship positions with no contraventions (i.e. they met the criteria under subs. 1(2) of the ESA); seventeen (17) employers did not have active internship programs at the time of the inspection; and, thirteen (13) employers had internship positions which contravened provisions of the Employment Standards Act, 2000 ("ESA").

For the employers using unpaid interns, in almost forty-two percent (41.9%) of the cases there were breaches of the ESA. These breaches related to minimum wage, vacation pay, public holiday pay, record keeping and wage statements, and hours of work. It strikes me that this is an extremely high rate of contravention given that essentially these were misclassified employees who were being denied: a wage; access to the Canada Pension Plan, Employment Insurance, or to workers' compensation; and, fringe benefits.

The other big chunk of the unpaid internship positions were deemed to be exempt. Given the current state of workplace law in Ontario this means that this group of interns aren't covered under the laws pertaining to employment standards, workers' compensation, or occupational health and safety. This is clearly an area of growing concern given the recent deaths of students and interns in Ontario. 

With respect to the five employers who were using unpaid interns with no contraventions, this is unusual given the current state of the case law. Having assessed internship programs for employers it's next to impossible to adhere to the criteria under subs. 1(2) of the ESA and I have concerns about whether there was a proper assessment of the facts with respect to those employers.

Despite the relatively small sample size the results of the inspection blitz suggest that there is a systemic problem with employers ignoring employment standards laws governing unpaid internships and points to a much larger problem in Ontario's labour market (particularly in the GTA). Students Against Unpaid Internship Scams suggests that the results indicate a failure of the complaints-based enforcement model. Certainly I agree with that assessment and I've been informed that the MOL is sitting on hundred of complaints regarding unpaid internships that have so far not been investigated.

I would suggest that the results confirm my long-held assertion that we have a situation of regulatory failure in Ontario with respect to unpaid internships. While it's great that the MOL has started to take steps to address this issue (trust me when I say their thinking has evolved), it's clear that the current regulatory model isn't working and that the widespread problems related to unpaid internships cannot be addressed with the complaints-based system or infrequent inspection blitzes (which are often just public relations exercises). 

Going forward it's clear that the Wynne government needs to get serious about addressing the increasingly precarious labour market that young people find themselves in and enact appropriate protections so that employers aren't able to exploit young workers with impunity.