Unpaid Internship Rights

Idjit

I've been searching online and can't find any information about my rights as an employee of an unpaid full-time internship.

Does anyone here know of a site/information about this?

Mrs OBumble

On Jobridge? Or is it a "private" internship?

Can you give us some clues about the situation - you have certain rights as a citizen no matter what situation you are in ...

Idjit

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

On Jobridge? Or is it a "private" internship?

Can you give us some clues about the situation - you have certain rights as a citizen no matter what situation you are in ...

It is a private internship. I arranged it with a company after graduating to bulk out my CV, surviving on my savings in the hope that I secure a proper paid job whilst doing this internship. It was initially stated on their website that I would be having my transport paid for me..but now the website details have changed so that is no longer displayed.

I will be working full-time for two months with them and was just wondering about things like required days off, whether I'm entitled to a reference (presuming I did a good job), if they have any right to get angry at me should I secure a job and leave before the two months are up etc..

Mrs OBumble

Have you signed any kind of contract with them?

TBH, you have very few if any employment rights ( you're not employed) - maybe some health and safety ones as a visitor to their workplace ... and I'm sure they will expect you to be job hunting.

Idjit

No contract, just a sort of verbal agreement. I was just wondering if there was any laws or rules for this sort of situation to cover me since they seem to be backing out of one part of the initial agreement by the looks of it already.

xprnc

Jade, you have the same rights as a full-time employee. Employers have to guarantee to each Intern:

• Health & Safety protection.
• Annual leave & public holidays.
• Protection from discrimination.
• Data protection.

You can check out http://www.ictu.ie/internrights/ or PM me and I'll give you a link to my blog (i can't link it here according to Boards!)

Jade182 wrote: »

No contract, just a sort of verbal agreement. I was just wondering if there was any laws or rules for this sort of situation to cover me since they seem to be backing out of one part of the initial agreement by the looks of it already.

davo10

OP you are not a full time employee nor were you offered full time employment. My understanding of your post is that a temporary unpaid internship was agreed so you could get experience. The business owner has no obligation to retain you if you start kicking up a fuss. I'm certain you are providing a service of value to them but they are offering you an opportunity to gain experience in a position which does not exist and for which they were not seeking a paid employee.

By all means request payment and travel costs but the response could be that they are not hiring anyone at the moment and the internship was agreed on a no fee basis. As for leave rights, are you not there for a very short period, two months, to gain experience? Do you mind me asking, wasn't the internship taken by you to bulk up your CV and with the understanding that it was to be unpaid?, I don't see any deception here, perhaps you could point out about travel costs but I'm not aware of anyone who receives this type of payment as an entitlement.

I suppose you could look at it this way, if the internship was offered by the business owner as temporary and unpaid but prior to you being offered the internship you asked to be paid at least minimum wage, would you have gotten the internship? As you haven't started yet, you still have an opportunity to raise these points with the business owner.

Mrs OBumble

xprnc wrote: »

You can check out http://www.ictu.ie/internrights/ or PM me and I'll give you a link to my blog (i can't link it here according to Boards!)

Note that this link is from the Irish Council of Trade Unions, who have a certain opinon of what your rights are. Lots of other organsations have opinions too, which may be different.

Interesting that they say

"you cannot sign away your right to be paid the national minimum wage.
Your rights as an intern depend on the facts of your situation, what happens in practice in the workplace, who decides what you do and what you are expected to do by your employer.
As an intern - provided you are doing work of value to the employer, have a similar level of supervision and responsibility as the rest of the workforce - then you are likely to be entitled to be paid at least the national minimum wage regardless of what title your employer has put on you ."

While I have a lot of sympathy for this position, I'm not sure that many interns in practise would have a similar level of responsibility.


And ..



Mod-note: in general, there is no problem with blog links from establsihed posters. Unless yours is somehow defamatory/lilegal .. and even then, boards.ie doesn't try to police what other sites say.

Idjit

Thanks for the help everyone, situation has been resolved.