Unpaid internships exploitative and exclusionary say award-winning documentary directors

Unpaid internships are rapidly expanding across New Zealand, undermining labour laws, exploiting young people and excluding all but the wealthy, according to the directors of “Call Me Intern” – the winner of Best NZ Documentary at the ongoing Doc Edge Film Festival.

Internships are increasingly present throughout the economy, including in sales, retail, construction, farming, PR, politics, hospitality, real estate, tech and parts of Government.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) says unpaid interns should technically be categorized as volunteers, and employers should:

- avoid getting an economic benefit from the work done by the volunteer.

- avoid having the volunteer do work which is integral to the business, such as work that an employee would ordinarily do.

- limit the duration of work and the hours worked by the volunteer. The longer a person volunteers and the more hours they work, the more likely they are to be an employee.

Yet this classification leaves ample room for abuse, as interns are not afforded any employee rights. Co-Director Leo David Hyde (who made headlines after living in a tent while interning at the United Nations in Geneva) said: “A volunteer might work a few hours per week at a soup kitchen – but if you’re doing substantial shifts for months on end for a business or organisation you’re clearly a worker and your employer is acting illegally. It’s shameful that certain employers are misusing the concept of volunteering to exploit young people and benefit from unpaid intern labour.”

Internships for sale?

One concerning trend is the rise of brokers such as Internships NZ who charge young people hundreds of dollars to help find them a position. Among the featured employers on their website is The Institute of Environmental Science and Research Limited (ESR) whose representative Sally Coulson said "without an intern to do this work we would have had to fit it into our current workload." ESR generated over $4 million in profits in 2018.

Another employer testimonial features Mark Milburn from Lusty & Blundell – a boating supplies distributor – who said “the interns do projects which will take our company forward... but also give us a body of work which will increase the capabilities of our company."

Government asleep at the wheel on internships

The MBIE does not collect any statistics on internships. Because internships are often ‘off the books’ the trend has been able to quietly grow without sufficient oversight or intervention. Swiss Co-Director Nathalie Berger said “In Europe and the US, youth activism has helped expose internships as illegal, immoral, elitist and exploitative. It’s sad to see this trend growing here as unpaid internships undermine meritocracy and drive entry level jobs out of existence. These young workers are off the budget sheet and out of sight so it’s almost impossible to know the scale of the problem – but what’s clear is the law is not keeping up.”

Universities increasingly part of the problem

Many New Zealand Universities now integrate internships as course requirement – often enabling them to cut costs by charging fees to students without having to run lectures – and offering a steady supply of cheap or free labour to employers. Auckland University of Technology now requires 89% of graduates to undertake internships, many of them completely unpaid, which has lead to concern and complaints from students.

About the Film

Call Me Intern is the first feature-documentary by Leo David Hyde (NZ) and Nathalie Berger (Swiss). The film follows three interns-turned-activists who refuse to accept that young people should have to work for free to kickstart their careers. Their stories challenge youth stereotypes and help give a voice to the growing movement for intern rights across the world.

The film, (which won the best NZ editing, best overall NZ Documentary and qualifies for Oscar consideration) will screen as part of the ongoing Doc Edge Festival at the Q Theatre, Auckland on 3rd and 4th June and and Roxy Cinemas in Wellington on 17th and 18th June.

ends

© Scoop Media