If your company is using interns, it would be wise to run your eyes over the rules regarding this practice. While this is less dramatic than publisher Conde Nast’s fine of US$5.8 million last year, Australian media company Crocmedia has been fined $24,000 for failing to pay two interns for 20 months’ work.
The Melbourne company was fined by the Federal Circuit Court on January 29 for breaching minimum wage provisions by failing to pay two interns. One intern worked for 14 months while the other worked for six months between 2011 and 2013.
Before the court case ruling was decided, Crocmedia had agreed to reimburse the interns a full wage for the work they had done for the company.
Federal Circuit Court Judge Grant Riethmuller said that while Crocmedia may not have set out to underpay the interns, it was “content to receive the benefits that flowed from the arrangement, and that the arrangement itself, when viewed objectively, was exploitative.”
The ruling was applauded by lobby group Interns Australia, with co-founder Colleen Chen saying, “This decision is crucial in highlighting the responsibilities of employers to comply with minimum wage laws and to ensure they play their role in protecting the notion of a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay.
“While internships can provide valuable hands-on experience for students and job seekers, the lack of provision in employment laws for interns and very high youth unemployment means that we are seeing more and more cases of interns working for free in positions when they should be paid a wage.”
In a statement, Crocmedia CEO Craig Hutchison said: “We entered into these arrangements with the understanding that they were compliant with employment law. We have always had many young people asking to gain experience in the industry and our intention was to give them a head-start.
“Inadvertently, we breached workplace laws and we acknowledge we made an error. We have been working cooperatively and positively with Fair Work Australia and accept the penalty handed down.”
Chen told mUmBRELLA that there was likely to be more cases brought by interns against media companies in Australia, if the “US and Canada is anything to go by”.
Image: Sweatpants & Coffee
