Good work experience can be a real benefit to people starting out in their careers. Many employers want to treat interns fairly, but others provide no real training or are just looking for cheap labour.
All interns have some rights at work, but the extent of their employment rights depends on the exact nature of their relationship with the organisation providing the internship.
The real problems are that:
- awareness of how these rights apply is much too low amongst both interns and their employers.
- Interns are often afraid to enforce their rights since they fear that they will not get a good reference
“Those taking up internships are usually amongst the brightest people in their generation, but this is no guarantee that they won’t get ripped off as they enter the world of work. The degree of competition for good jobs at the moment is putting pressure on young people to take up intern places even when they will not be fairly treated. In this situation it’s very important to know your rights – and joining a trade union is the best way to ensure that you can enforce them.” TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber
