Unpaid internships remain thorny issue for students, employers
By Eric Mortenson, The Oregonian
April 21, 2010, 4:24PM
When you combine college students hungry for experience with employers too strapped to hire more workers, you've got potential trouble.Over the past eight months, the state labor bureau has investigated and settled a handful of cases in which young workers didn't get paid for jobs that employers argued were unpaid internships.
The Law
Unpaid internships are a thorny thicket for employers and interns alike. The state has established a six-part test that determines if an internship is proper. Unless all of them apply, the "intern" is due wages: 1. The training must be similar to a vocational school.
2. The internship is offered for the benefit of the student or trainee; the position may actually hamper the business.
3. The intern may not displace a regular employee.
4. There's no automatic advancement from the internship, and paid workers who supervise interns may actually be less productive.
5. The intern is not entitled to a job at the end of the training period.
6. The intern is not entitled to wages at the end of the training period.
SOURCE: Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries
As students and graduates look for jobs this spring or seek to enhance their coursework with practical experience, the problems are a reminder that strict guidelines separate legitimate internships from unfair labor practices.
While some businesses are clearly taking advantage of free labor, others simply don't understand the rules, said Bob Estabrook, spokesman for the state Bureau of Labor and Industries. And students sometimes are reluctant to complain because they think it may hurt their chances of landing a paying job.
The bureau doesn't track internship cases as such -- they're lumped in with other wage claim filings -- but Estabrook said they are familiar ground for investigators.
"It comes up regularly at this time of year," Estabrook said. "With spring break and college students getting out of school, there's an influx of folks who want to get into the workforce anyway they can."
Under Oregon law, a for-profit business can't legally have a volunteer worker. Volunteers are allowed at non-profits and can do charitable, religious or educational jobs, but they can't work the counter at the burger joint.
Also under state law, you are an employee if you're "rendering service" to an employer and are not an independent contractor, a co-partner or engaged in a work-training program that falls under state or federal assistance laws.
Two men who worked at a Eugene solar energy company last summer said they answered Craigslist ads for internships and found themselves installing computers, driving a warehouse forklift, lining up potential customers and researching government energy subsidies. Neither got paid, and their "internships" abruptly ended when they complained.
"I believe I performed the duties of a paid professional under the guise of an internship, and performed tasks that the company has profited from, tasks that are beyond the scope of an unpaid internship," Edward W. Hart wrote in a wage claim he filed with the state Bureau of
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