Hollywood Reporter: The original lawsuit, filed last August, involved two interns who worked on Fox Searchlight's Black Swan and claimed that the company's unpaid internship program violated minimum wage and overtime laws.
But as The Hollywood Reporter reported this summer, during pre-trial discovery, the attorneys at Outten & Golden began looking to add new named plaintiffs and expand the purview of the litigation after an investigation purportedly showed "that the same hiring, personnel and company policies that applied to Searchlight interns applied to all interns who participated in FEG's internship program."
10 comments:
I've definitely done a few "internships" where I was overworked, and not paid at all. The theatre and entertainment business is rife with people being taken advantage of as free labor because high school and college age kids will do anything to get an "in" and work with connected people. There does have to be a line drawn between an experience that was worth it even though you weren't paid, and an experience where you just scrubbed floors for 5 hours and didn't do anything worthwhile. It's a shame that such a big movie company would take advantage of people like that, but it doesn't shock me to know it. In some cases, I understand how a small indie movie wouldn't pay people. But a big corporation definitely has the money to pay them AT LEAST minimum wage, they were just trying to cut costs, which is really inhumane to cut costs when it comes to people's salaries by not giving them one.
Due to the shrinking of the number of job opportunities across the board there has been an explosion of unpaid internships in the last decade. The fact that fox or any company this big would be immoral and bully the interns should not come as a shock for anyone. The interns knew going into this that it would be an unpaid internship and long hours would be a large part of this. The idea that it is unfair is true but why wouldn't Fox and other large producers in the entertainment industry use free labor to cut costs across the board. Fox may have found the point where you pushed people too far. Also if these interns had reaped the benefits of contacts and had networked effectively they would have gotten over the long hours and abuse of free labor. Basically if there is still competition to get into these intern programs there will never be a change in their treatment of people. Unpaid internships will continue to dominate the landscape until the workforce shrinks or opportunities increase to make it not feasible to pay people nothing to do the work. If people stopped allowing themselves to do work for free these problems would go away and people would be compensated for what they do.
I definately would like to reiterate something the article and other commentors said: it was an UNPAID internship. The gentlemen knew what they were getting into. I have had my fair share of unpaid internships and one summer I actually had to choose between an unpaid internship at the larger theater or a paid internship at a lesser known theater. Due to financial and transportation issues, I chose to go with the paid internship. But had I been offered this opportunity only one month prior, I would have taken the unpaid internship to make connections. This is were personal need come into account. If the gentlemen in the lawsuit need the money so bad, why did they agree to do an unpaid internship? I understand that working long hours with no pay is rarely fun, but it is what they agreed to do, and if it was too much, why not bring it up to a supervisor at the time? (2)
I think that almost everyone who wants to work in the entertainment industry have been or will be working in conditions like these. It is true that the entertainment industry is known to have worse conditions for its interns than other industries, and I am curious to find out if this lawsuit makes a big difference. I understand the argument that many people make about these interns knowing what they were getting themselves into, but how does that make it right? Especially with a big corporation like FOX, they have the money to pay. Sure, the resume credit and experience is invaluable, but not everyone can take a job based on that. Many qualified applicants do not have the same chance if they need financial income. I am curious to see what comes out of this lawsuit and how working environments like these will be handled in the future.
THis is a potentially sticky issue, because as others have noted, the plaintiffs did enter into it knowing that it was an unpaid internship. However, it seems ridiculous that a company like FOX cannot afford to pay at least minimum wage to their interns. In this industry, as TIm said, we have to make choices about our internships and whether or not they will pay. Could an unpaid internship be the better option? Potentially.
Sadly, the first thing I thought when I read the preview paragraph on the NFTRW blog was how the interns that are partaking in this lawsuit have probably been blacklisted from the entertainment industry by every affiliate, personal and professional, of 20th Century Fox. And since the entertainment industry is so small, (because as Dick always says, there are 5 people in showbusiness, 2 of them are married, 2 of them are gay, and 1 of them is having an affair) I'm sure that these interns will be blacklisted from every possible positon in the industry.
By no means am I advocating for these really unfair unpaid internships that have become weirdly acceptable. I'm just saying that these ex-interns have really taken one for the team.
It's pretty disgusting that such a huge company is treating its interns so poorly and not paying them when it's no secret that they have the money to. It took a lot of guts for these interns to step forward and pursue legal action against the company, but I'm glad they did. Injustices like this are going to keep occurring if people don't speak up about them. As Pia has pointed out, there may be some backlash against these plaintiffs from within the industry, which is not fair at all, but is, unfortunately, the reality of the business. The other interns who are being represented by this suit are very fortunate to have such brave individuals heading them up. Things like this cannot continue to happen or else none of us will be able to ge started in the industry. While unpaid internships are sometimes a good way to go, it should be clear to people applying to the internship that they will be entering a non-paid position if they are hired.
I remember reading the original articles about this situation, as well as watching the reports on the news and it made me a little upset for many reasons.
1. When you enter into an internship you know the stipulations accompanying your agreement. You will either get a stipend, assistance, or no pay and no assistance. It is then up to the person to say yes, I will take the internship or no.
2. Last summer I spent so much time trying to decided if I should take the unpaid internships to get the valuable experience as well as to network and learn on the job. After much discussion with myself I realised I needed money to pay for rent, food, accommodation over here, travel and decided to go back home and work. That way I could have two other summers to gain more experience.
3. I too do not like the fact that many great opportunities don't pay, or pay you minimum wage, however it is up to the individual to decide whether it is worth the sacrifice. Do you think this will improve or help your chances? Plus long work hours in the entertainment industry are a given. I have no idea why they keep mentioning that.
I think that many of the large companies who hire interns can afford to pay them; that is not a question. However the hiring of interns is a way of getting semi-skilled labour, or sometimes skilled labour without having to pay, which in turn lessens the production costs. That is the aim of any for-profit organisation. Yes I wish it would stop, but this doesn't only occur in the entertainment industry. This is an across the board issue with jobs.
My first reaction- Uh Oh.
This suit is talking about a very specific practice of hiring interns, something I haven't really experienced in theater with the filling out of tax forms and workers comp. However I am sure that happens at some of our internships, so the companies we work for should be extremely careful. There are a LOT of laws, regardless of industry best practices, about what an unpaid intern can do. It DOESN'T matter if you agree to be unpaid- it matters if you are considered an employee. This suit could call attention to some very ugly practices with unpaid entertainment internships, possibly opening Fox and the industry up to increased scrutiny from labor groups who would argue that unpaid interns replace their workers.
Last year there was a controversy over companies feeling shafted by the interns they have chosen. There were interns that committed to working with a company and then backed out. Different companies work on different timelines, putting students in awkward positions about making decisions regarding accepting internships.
Then finally, when you take the internship, you might be abused. Yes, in some ways you sign up for that, and it can be a great experience, but an internship has responsibility on the end of the company to educate you and give you a worthwhile experience.
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