Unpaid Internship - Essay Example

Unpaid Internship Introduction There are two sides to the unpaid internship program issue. One side favors the program as equating to gaining valuable real world work experiences. The contradicting side denounces the nonpayment of the learning interns’ work efforts as illegally unfair labor practice. The National Association of Colleges and Employers’ 2012 internship report indicated “the year’s internship hiring increased by an estimated 9 percent during 2012” (Sakaduski 113). Specifically 50 percent are unpaid interns. Generally, the unpaid internship program is fair and legal. Unpaid internships should be legal In my opinion, the unpaid internship program is perfectly legal. Some institutions offer either a paid or unpaid internship program. For the unpaid internship program, a partnership is entered into between the schools and the training institutions. The institutions include the hospitals, factories, stores, and other unpaid internship entity types. Under both the unpaid and paid internship programs, the students are given an opportunity to experience real life working conditions. In the internship program, fair exchange occurs. In exchange for the real life working experiences, the unpaid intern earns educational units (Niles 108). The educational unit credits are in lieu of the interns’ being paid in U.S. dollar or other similar payment methods. For receiving free real work experiences, the greenhorn, neophyte academic learner cannot demand payment of their internship duties (Wong 57). Undoubtedly, the unpaid intern receives equivalent education units in exchange for the entities’ free training. Nancy Niles reiterated that “the unpaid internship program offers management another tool for fill the company’s need additional company recruits (Niles 107). Some entities engage in trial employment (internship) activities. The company tests the intern’s capacity to be hired as another future employee. For the slow-learning lackluster unpaid intern, management may immediately to terminate the internship. An intern who cannot follow the instructions or orders of the clinical instructors or training facilities’ superiors will surely be “kicked out” of the training sessions (Niles 108). Without a doubt, the unpaid internship program offers the facilities’ officers another tool in its desire to absorb highly qualified interns into the company’s regular employee program. The unpaid internship program increases the students’ job hiring prospects. To be effective, the students must focus quality time and energy to learning everything needed to be successful in the real world, including being hired in one’s dream job. Many companies take into consideration the student’s internship training evaluation grades as one of the employee hiring factors. In most internship programs, the organization’s immediate superior gives the intern’s grades. To increase one’s job hiring chances, the job applicant can use the internship supervisor as one of the verifiable references. Consequently, the hiring companies will use the internship organization superior’s evaluation grade as a basis for hiring the job applicant. (Solomon 40). In order to be legally binding, unpaid internship is allowed in certain circumstances The United States Department of Labor emphasized the unpaid the internship program is generally legal. To be lawfully binding, the unpaid intern must work under certain conditions. The intern should not regularly perform the work of the training organizations on a regular basis, like a regular paid employee. The organization must not present an impression that the company is using the unpaid intern’s services in order to avoid hiring and paying the regular employees. The intern should not take the place of the regular employee. Likewise, the organization must not rely on the intern to accomplish organizational objects or goals. The intern trainers must teach, monitor and guide the unpaid interns. The intern must work on a shadow basis. The clients must not get the impression that the interns are regular employees of the establishment. Lastly, the internship program should be within a fixed, short term basis. (Walsh 45). Surely, the unpaid internship program is generally legal. To be lawful, the unpaid internship program must contribute to the students’ learning experiences. For the business organizations’ unpaid marketing trainee, joining the regularly employed sales force’s marketing seminars contributes to the marketing trainee’s marketing knowledge. To the unpaid accounting clerk intern, internship includes doing g some accounting tasks. Clearly, the lawful unpaid internship program adds to the students’ learning experience (Walsh 44). Contradiction Contradicting, stating that the internship programs are illegally unfair to the workers is generally wrong. Speaking in general terms, the law allows unpaid internship programs. Summarizing Ross Perlin’s research, some unpaid internship jobs are unfair (Perlin 68). In order to save on the salaries paid to regular employees, Perlin mentioned some companies illegally resort to using the unpaid interns. There were several cases of unlawful unpaid internship programs. During the first quarter of 1995, The Department of Labor ordered Brown-Olmstead Company to pay the wages of its 52 unpaid interns. The company had charged the customers for the services of the interns. Consequently, the government agency required that interns should receive the corresponding payment for performing the jobs of regular employees. In another unfair case, interns of the cartoon network production company were required to don animal costumes and dance during a birthday party. The interns were instructed to entertain one of the staff members. The unpaid intern’s forced dancing did not contribute to the unpaid cartoon intern’s students’ cartoon learning knowledge. Other illegal unpaid internships tasks of the cartoon network included instructing its interns to wash dishes and empty garbage cans. Except in certain unwarranted situations, unpaid internship programs are generally legal and fair. Conclusion Summarizing, there are favorable and unfavorable issues of the unpaid internship program. In terms of fair unpaid internship programs, the unpaid students earn education units. Likewise, the interns gain work experiences in exchange for their unpaid status. Additionally, the companies do not spend a dime training the unpaid interns. However, some unpaid internship programs violate the U.S. labor law provisions. Some interns do the jobs of regular employees, illegally saving on employees’ salaries. Likewise, the unpaid interns are assigned tasks that are not in line with their school’s learning topics. Overwhelmingly, unpaid internship programs are generally fair and legal, except in certain abusive situations. Works Cited Niles, Nancy. Basic Concepts of Health Care Human Resource Management. New York: Jones & Bartlett, 2013. Print. Perlin, Ross. Intern Nation. New York: Verso Press, 2012. Print. Sakaduski, Nancy. Managing Volunteers. New York: ABC CLIO Press, 2013. Print. Solomon, Amy. 100 Percent Job Search Success. New York: Cengage Learning, 2011. Print. Walsh, David. Employment Law for Human Resource Practice. New York: Cengage Learning, 2012. Print. Wong, Glenn. The Comprehensive Guide to Careers in Sports. New York: Jones & Bartlett, 2012. Print. Read More