24/10/2017
Public support ban on unpaid internships and work experience (UK)
A private members bill proposing a ban on unpaid work experience or internships that last 4 weeks or more has strong support from the UK public, reveals data from a poll published on the run-up to the Bill’s second reading in the House of Lords tomorrow (27 October).
72% of 5,000 people contacted for a YouGov poll commissioned by the Social Mobility Commission backed a change in the law, with 42% ‘strongly supporting a ban’. Polling also revealed 80% support for a requirement for companies to openly advertise internship/work experience opportunities, rather than organise them informally.
In addition to on-going support from the Social Mobility Commission, Lord Holmes of Richmond’s ‘Unpaid Work Experience (Prohibition) Bill [HL]’ already had wide-ranging support for the ban from
- the all-party parliamentary group on social mobility
- the Institute for Public Policy Research
- 66% of businesses that responded to a 2014 YouGov poll on the same topic
‘Good Work: The Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices’ (July 2017) concluded that unpaid internships were “an abuse of power by employers and extremely damaging to social mobility”, and there is a long list of employers and trade bodies which support the Bill’s main provision.
Ironically, the ‘National Minimum Wage Act 1998: Section 54: Meaning of ‘worker’, ’employee’ etc’ already gives many interns a legal entitlement to pay because they fall under the definition of ‘workers’. The law is not, however, being enforced effectively, with many companies either unaware of the legal requirement to pay their interns or choosing to ignore it.
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