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Reliance on unpaid internships

For thousands of young Canadians the only way to get a job is to get some experience. And in many cases these days the only way to get that experience is through an unpaid internship. But recently, the arrangement has been getting more attention. And Monday in Ottawa, an NDP MP introduced a private members bill to protect vulnerable workers, particularly unpaid interns.
Elise Copps takes a look at what this legislation could mean for the thousands of young people who feel forced to work for free.
The unpaid internship has become increasingly common, especially in competitive industries like fashion and media. There are rules about who can hire unpaid interns and how they must be treated, but they are rarely enforced. Monday, I spoke with a young woman about her experience.
When Tianna Leclair was a student, she worked nine months, unpaid for a not for profit fashion company until she had to quit because of exhaustion: “(I was) just not able to get out of bed. I was really not well. Between events for them, writing, being up all night editing their website, it was just quite a lot.”
Leclair says her work for them amounted to a full time job: “To do the website work I was doing would have cost them an absolute fortune.”
Many students experience the same thing; forced to work for free to break into competitive industries.
In Ontario, the Employment Standards Act says an internship is only legal if the intern isn’t replacing a position that would otherwise be paid. They also have to be there as part of a post secondary institution or vocational program, but often these conditions are not enforced.
According to one advocacy group, students are often afraid to report mistreatment, because they don’t want to lose their position.
Spencer Graham is with the Ontario University Student Alliance: “Since internship opportunities are so rare and are often very difficult to get, the unpaid interns will not be as likely to report infractions of the employment standards act because that experience is so valuable.”
So NDP MP Andrew Cash has introduced a private members bill to protect students who can’t speak for themselves: “More and more young people are working for free as unpaid interns.”
Cash wants to create a nation wide task force to improve and enforce standards for unpaid internships so students can develop skills without being taken advantage of.
The province is already trying to regulate unpaid internships, but if passed, this bill would create a national strategy. And while the unpaid internship can clearly be abused, many students I spoke with did say it has many benefits. Tianna Leclair is now working full time with the Canadian Cancer Society and says she probably wouldn’t have gotten her job without the experience she gained at her unpaid internship.