Thursday, September 29, 2011
Interns File Suit Against ‘Black Swan’ Producer
NYTimes.com: Two men who worked on the hit movie “Black Swan” have mounted an unusual challenge to the film industry’s widely accepted practice of unpaid internships by filing a lawsuit on Wednesday asserting that the production company had violated minimum wage and overtime laws by hiring dozens of such interns.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
A friend of mine actually just posted this link to Facebook and tagged a bunch on industry employees to get their opinion on it. We all have pretty much the same opinion about the subject. True, making coffee isn't a thrilling task, but it's not a particularly difficult one. I doubt that's all the interns were doing though. The one man was doing accounting work that seems to constitute a legitimate internship. Besides, when you're an intern, you do a lot of stuff you're not always going to like. You work your ass off for most of the hours in the day, and get paid pennies an hour if that. If those interns didn't want to do those things then they never should have applied for the job. There are kids out there who would kill for the opportunity they got. It's not up to the company to make sure you learn something, you have to take it upon yourself to learn whatever it is you want to know. It seems to me that the two men were just angry and bitter about not getting to do what they want. Sounds like they didn't like starting at the bottom and thought they deserved more than an internship when they didn't have enough resume experience to back it up.
I was surprised to read that an employer can't receive an immediate benefit from unpaid interns, making it seem that many of the internships in theatre should be paid. The number of people seeking these jobs is much larger than the number of jobs, so a required minimum wage would be a great way to help people who cannot afford to take unpaid internships.
Regarding making coffee, it's a rite of passage for most, and it gives you the opportunity to make connections. If you have the right attitude, often times somebody with the production will realize that they can get work that's more valuable than coffee making out of you, and that's how you move up. Besides, making coffee leads to free coffee, and that's a good thing...
While I understand the notion that you have to work your way up through the industry, and that usually requires you to take on a unpaid internship at some point. I think Daniel brings up a good point that often there are many people who are qualified to take on unpaid internships, but are unable to do to their financial situation. I think for that reason, trying to get people at least some kind of small stipend for most internship would be important and I think would allow more, perhaps better people an opportunity at breaking into the industry. I think these two who are filing suit weren't quite sure what they were getting into, and the fact is that while it would be good to get rid of this to some extent, there will always be somebody willing to get there foot in the door by not getting paid. It's part of our world nowadays.
Frankly I am surprised that this doesn't happen more often. There are plenty of internships out there that teach people nothing about the industry and should just be paid positions. It is a fine line though, who is to say that the two men in this case learned important skills by seeing there bosses work, or over hearing conversations that they had with other company members? For the movies especially though there should be no reason to not compensate, because they have so much money. There is an intrinsic problem though, companies want interns to learn so that they can use them as labor but they don't want them to be so integral that they are replacing someone that would be paid. So where do you draw that line? What is too much work and what is too little?
The article didn't make note of two other federal requirements for an unpaid internship:
1. The intern and employer are both agreed upon starting that there will be no pay for the internship, and
2. Not only does the employer derive no direct benefit, but an intern's work may actually impede operations
I'm with Jess on this one - if their job really was only coffee, food and taking out the trash, then that is displacing an employee (whether a janitorial or secretarial position) with an unpaid intern, and is illegal under labor standards. I can't believe that's all they did, though - even peripherally, there's observation of the film process, but there must have been some hands-on activity that gave the intern a chance to participate in the filmmaking process. The accounting intern actually did have a substantive internship, and his work, while helpful, was (a) educational practice, and (b) surely double-checked by supervisors. His internship could potentially lay outside the law in that going to the set to collect signatures is something that would have taken a significant amount of time for an employee to do and doing it relieved the need for another person hired in the office, but if he got hands on work in the field, I don't see where he's complaining that much.
Unpaid internships in arts organizations are common because (a) budgets are usually low and (b) it's kinda how the industry works. It's an interesting exercise to examine how much even giving a small stipend would strain some companies, some nearly to collapse (Rich Dionne talks about doing a project like this with his classes on his blog: http://www.theatreface.com/profiles/blogs/labor-pains). Many companies abuse these excuses and, if more heavily regulated, many companies that treat interns as overhire on shows or as full assistant stage managers, etc. would probably be penalized by the Dept. of Labor. Black Swan probably had the financial capability to pay these interns minimum wage or even a stipend, but as long as their work stuck to those six requirements (educational, benefit of the intern, no expectation of job, no expectation of pay, not displacing regular employees, and not to the benefit, possibly to the detriment of employers), they don't really have an obligation here to help.
The point made about being afraid to speak up is sad yet understandable. It's true that a large company like Fox Searchlights would hardly notice the money given to these interns, while it would make a huge difference to them. This is not always the case, though, especially in live theatre. I agree that the internship should be unpaid if they are being educated, therefore allowing leniency on their work (as Brian said, having interns could impede operations), but something like making coffee is in no way beneficial to one's education and should be reconsidered as the only task for an intern, if that is truly what happened. If an education is promised, then it is truly unfair to only be making coffee. Of course, this could not be the truth and perhaps nothing was learned by the intern because he did not exert the effort. I suppose, as always, it just depends. Unpaid internships are great (for those who can afford to take the time to put in effort without payment) if their is an education received. But there are many people who cannot take that sort of time without payment, and the least they could get out of the experience is education.
This is interesting that they are suing the production after the movie has made big bucks. I bet they would not have sued if the movie was a flop they would have been like that was a good experience and I learned a lot. They just seem like they want some of the pie that was made and being greedy about it. You should know when you are going into these jobs what you are getting paid for or what you are not getting paid for. At that point you want to rise above that expectation and make people remember you and they may hire you back at a higher level allowing you to make the bigger money. So of these people just need to suck it up.
Unpaid internships will always be debated. No matter what work has been done, there will be some form of justification to be paid. The educational value of any job can be debated; unless you are working in an industry that doesn't even relate to what you want to do, there is some form of education. An intern does have to do the horrible low class jobs because that is what is meant to be done by the less educated. Being around the industry you work in is educational in itself. There would be no point to higher an intern to do work and learn if it didn't help the employer at some point. If I learned anything from this summer is that you went into the job knowing the pay you will get, sometimes you need to suck it up, learn from what you can, and run with the connections.
I am confused with some of the details in the case. Wouldn't they know beforehand whether or not they are being paid? If so, then when you agree to intern on a production without pay, then expect to be paid?? No matter what you end up doing you should not expect to be paid. On the contrary, I do agree that getting coffee and purchasing lunch is nothing worthy of their time, and won't improve their knowledge of the business or their area of interest. However they could have probably tried to find the time and ways of learning as much as possible from other people. In addition if they felt this way during the process, which I am sure they did, they should have discontinued working for Black Swan. Maybe they should seek out internships where they are paid and promised more fulfilling assignments! Unfortunately the article does not provide enough information to choose a side on the matter. However it would be interesting to hear the results of the case.
Post a Comment