Revealed: Broadcasters and publishers escape punishment for illegal internships
The Australian government failed to punish a single publisher or broadcaster for illegally hiring unpaid interns in the last year, Mumbrella can reveal.
The findings come despite an investigation commissioned by the government’s own Fair Work Ombudsman, which suggests journalism is the worst offender.
Critics argue unpaid internships price those from poorer backgrounds out of the profession.
Campaigners claim the lack of reprimands is due to factors including grey areas in the law and young people being too scared to report offenders for fear of losing a good reference.
Click to read the FWO’s 2013 internship investigation
Mumbrella’s evidence, obtained after a three-month freedom of information battle, also revealed not a single journalism intern registered a complaint to the watchdog between May 2017 and May 2018.
The revelations begin a week-long Mumbrella investigation into how journalism is becoming a profession dominated by the wealthy – the full details of which will be published on Wednesday.
Mumbrella’s Freedom of Information Act application sought details of so-called “requests for assistance” from interns lodged to the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) that alleged “non-payment” or “underpayment”.
The FWO essentially operates as the Australian government’s watchdog on this issue and investigates complaints where workers feel laws have been broken.
Those requests can result in a number of reprimands to businesses, including infringement notices (on-the-spot fines), compliance notices (an order to fix a work breach), letters of caution as well as court action.
No penalties were issued because no complaints were received among newspaper, broadcast and online media owners regarding unpaid internships.
The FWO argued it would be unable to provide comparative information or details of individual cases across other industries because the search for information would take too long and be too expensive.
In the most recent year figures were released (2016-17), the FWO issued 952 “enforcement actions” across all industries and all work-related complaints.
However, finding out specific information on interns is difficult because there is no need for a business to register with the government when it hires work experience staff, making it a largely unregulated practice.
Consequently, there are no definitive figures in Australia as to how many young people have undertaken unpaid work experience, and how many of those are technically illegal.
Research by campaign group Interns Australia, though, reveals 60% of internships, across all professions, are breaking the law.
Meanwhile, a damning investigation into unpaid internships commissioned by the FWO in 2013 – and created by Adelaide University academics Andrew Stewart and Rosemary Owens – claimed the media was the worst offender, stating:
“Of all the industries or sectors that we have had occasion during this study to read or hear about, in terms of unpaid work experience, the one that came up most often by far was the media.
“Virtually every journalist, announcer, host, producer, researcher or (in one case) make-up artist that we spoke to told the same story. Either they themselves – and this was the great majority – had spent time doing unpaid work experience before scoring a paid job, or at the very least they knew of others in their organisation doing exactly the same thing right now.
“The practice of spending what may be quite lengthy periods of time waiting for a ‘break’ appears to be endemic at newspapers, magazines, television and radio stations, and indeed it seems to have been that way for many years.”
Another reason for the lack of reprimands is the fear of reprisal for approaching authorities.
@dodgyinternship calls out questionable work experience adverts
The anonymous founder of Twitter group @dodgyinternships, which calls out bad work experience placements on the social media site, said many young people are scared to report cases that break the law through fear of getting a bad reference.
“Fear is definitely a key issue as to why illegal work experience stints have become such a widespread issue,” the founder told Mumbrella. “The current system relies on mistreated workers to report their negative experiences, rather than the Fair Work Ombudsman looking at job websites and investigating, which is obviously flawed.”
Interns Australia co-founder Tilly South
“Interns know if they speak up publicly, they’re damaging their chances of finding work later on,” said Tilly South, from campaign group Interns Australia. “There needs to be effective enforcement and reporting mechanisms that don’t rely on interns going public about their bad experiences.”
Many campaigners also argue the law on what constitutes an illegal unpaid internship, rather than a legal one, is too subjective.
The Fair Work Act and Fair Work Regulations Act merely defines an unlawful placement as one outside of an academic course, where the business benefits more than the young person, or one where the applicant is performing work that could or should be carried out by a paid worker.
“It is absolutely imperative that interns and businesses have a strong regulatory framework to guide them,” added South. “Right now this doesn’t exist and it causes a lot of confusion for both interns and businesses, as well as allowing dodgy businesses to take advantage of young people looking to get a foot in the door.”
The culture of unpaid internships has driven those from poorer backgrounds out of the profession.
In 2018, it’s common for potential journalism recruits to have completed months – or years – of unpaid internships in order to get their first paid job.
A later report commissioned by the Commonwealth Department of Employment, carried out in 2016, concluded those from “economically disadvantaged” backgrounds don’t have the same opportunities as wealthier students, due to juggling work to cover living expenses.
It tallies with research from Interns Australia, which suggests the average student ends up out of pocket $6,000 in lost wages while undertaking work experience.
The FWO has taken media companies to court before on the matter. In June 2016, Sydney-based AIMG BQ Pty Ltd was fined $270,000.
The company operated Chinese-language websites and publications for Australia’s Chinese community, including the Oriental BQ Weekly.
More infamously, in January 2015, Melbourne-based production house Crocmedia was fined $24,000 and lambasted by a judge for exploiting two interns who had worked for 14 and six months.
A FWO spokesman said in response to today’s Mumbrella revelations: “We recognise that many young workers are reluctant to speak up or reach out for help as they are concerned about the impact this may have on their future job prospects. This has left many young workers vulnerable to exploitation – which is why they are a key focus for our agency.
“Australia’s workplace relations system allows for unpaid work in some specified situations, as part of a structured learning program for example. However, in matters that fall outside those specified situations, the law prohibits the exploitation of workers by characterising them as ‘interns’ or as doing ‘work experience’ when those individuals are fulfilling the role of an employee. Such workers must be paid minimum employee entitlements.”
Join us at Mumbrella’s Publish conference on September 20th, where we will be discussing the state of the journalism industry in our panel: ‘Has Journalism Become a Profession For the Rich?’ Details are available here.
This was the first instalment in a week-long series. Also read:
Tuesday (news): Just one quarter of journalism grads find a job in media
Wednesday (main feature): Journalism is becoming a profession for only the rich – so why won’t anyone talk about it?
Thursday (opinion): Degrees? Internships? No – all savvy journos require is ratlike cunning and a plausible manner
Friday (podcast – 28:30): Mumbrellacast – Illegal internships exposed
This is nothing new. I did unpaid work experience back in the 1960s. It was my own choice and resulted in getting a leg-up into a paying job in media that started my career, so why would I complain?
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Having a quick look around google, the concern seems to be that there’s been a growing trend which has seen paid entry level jobs declining to be replaced, initially, by lower paid traineeship positions, and now, finally, by unpaid internships.
A couple of the issues would seem to be (a) the environment in which this sort of unpaid work is being done i.e. commercial businesses (b) the number of hours being worked (c) how important the work is to the overall, day to day running of the company and (d) at what point has the intern reached a level of competency where they should be paid standard industry rates
Perhaps, aspiring hopefuls could be gaining much the same sort of experience by doing a few hours of voluntary work each week with good, well established community based arts and media groups. For example, there are plenty of excellent community radio stations where no one is getting paid. And, quite often there are experienced (sometimes very experienced) former, professional industry people helping out at these places. I was involved with a station for five years. At one point, we had several extremely well known ex commercial radio people doing voluntary work at the station. And, indeed, a number of our volunteers went on to find paid jobs in the business.
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Thanks for your reply Bruce – and your second paragraph is exactly correct I think. Work experience isn’t necessarily a bad thing of course, but it’s about being vigilant when it crosses the line where the business is getting too good a deal.
I also agree very much with your last paragraph. I would far rather volunteer somewhere where nobody is making a fast buck, which feels much fairer.
My full feature will go live on Wednesday, so stay tuned.
Thanks,
Adam Thorn
Hi Adam
A very good article by the way.
Unfortunately, as you would be well aware, the arts and media industry has, pretty much, always been a buyers market when it comes to employers being able to pick and choose. It’s usually chronically over supplied with job applicants – a situation that employers will, definitely exploit. No question about that.Who wants to work in a factory if you have creative talent ?
I was lucky to get my start in commercial radio way back in 1979 as a humble production assistant … straight out of school… no training .. no courses…. nothing. But, even then, there were … wait for it … 255 applications for the gig. I know because, I was told by the guy who hired me…. probably to keep me in line I suspect ! I can only imagine what the competition must be like today. But, the point is that, back then, you were, at least, offered a straightforward, no strings attached, fully paid entry level job.
Sadly, these days, it seems, that so many people are trying to “get at us” and “put the boots in” … to use that grand old Australian saying.
And …speaking of people “getting at us”… I’d better return to the on-going fight that I’m having with my alleged “‘energy provider” …. talk about “putting the boots in” … these creeps wrote the book
Anyway, look forward to any updates that you do
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Yes, and black people needed to use their own toilets and gay people needed to stay quiet or they got beaten up.
The world has changed for the better in most cases, so let’s not hang onto the nastiness of the past.
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14 months worth? These kids are paying $50,000 + in uni fees, did you? I’m a great believer in some work experience and paying your dues but exploitation IS rife these days, and it’s not being followed up by quality or long term jobs, surely you acknowledge that?? I hear awful stories from young people and it makes me sad. It was easier in my day [the 80’s]
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Adam, the fact you have included the anonymous founder of an anonymous Twitter group lets down this otherwise interesting story.
I agree the state of internships need to be explored, but I am also intrigued by this paragraph –
“In 2018, it’s common for potential journalism recruits to have completed months – or years – of unpaid internships in order to get their first paid job.”
How is that different to what I went through in the mid-1980s when I spent my high school and uni holidays interning on newspapers, radio stations and magazines – about 4 years in total – before landing a paid gig? It was the same for most of my colleagues, and it was the same for the senior journos above me. So how is today’s process actually different?
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Hi Max,
In tomorrow’s feature, I will explore this in more detail. In terms of what’s changed, we speak to Rachel Smith from Rachel’s List – Australia’s biggest media-specific jobs site. We also speak to ex-Daily Telegraph editor Garry Linnell, who got his first job in media straight from high school, as well as American and British journo legend Harry Evans. They will talk about how their first major experiences were paid jobs. So, while I agree there were clearly people who did a lot of interning, there were definitely opportunities for those who couldn’t afford to work for free.
Thanks for your comment,
Adam
Given the inability or reluctance of the FWO to investigate complaints about internships, perhaps a better course of action is to contact the media union. The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance has a range of resources for interns on our website here: https://www.meaa.org/campaigns/ethical-internships/
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I am approached regularly by agencies that offer American interns for 3 months free work in music publishing.
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Thank you for this excellent article. A higher number of prosecutions, an investigative approach (rather than relying on complaints), and clearer rules about what is and isn’t allowed would all be good steps forward.
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