Friday, January 30, 2015
Warner Music Group Settles Lawsuit Over Unpaid Interns
The Hollywood Reporter: Warner Music Group has now become the largest music company to resolve litigation over its past internship programs. On Thursday, the attorney for the plaintiffs wrote a letter to the judge announcing that the substantive terms had been agreed upon by the parties.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
This past summer, I worked as an unpaid intern. What is not exactly clear from this article is whether or not the interns agreed to be unpaid or if upon further review they were working in conditions that required that they must be paid. Speaking from personal experience, the most valuable part of my internship was my on-site learning experience as well as connections that I made. I would be curious to know a couple more things about the situation including how long the internship was for, if it was for college credit, and if they found the internship to be a valuable experience. The article also mentions that Warner is not the first group to have to go through this? It makes me wonder what regulations should be in place for this because essentially, yes, the employer is getting free labor but the intern should also have a valuable learning experience.
Unfortunately I was a little disappointed as to how this article was laid out, it’s understandable that there are unpaid internships, but what I would want to know is the cause as to why this lawsuit is happening to begin with. They don’t really provide much of a backstory or rather any backstory for that matter. I can only assume that this has come about due to the fact that as an unpaid intern they weren’t doing the type of job necessary that would help them work towards their career, which would make sense. Why else would you take an internship except to learn towards your trade. I’m assuming it’s negligence on account of warner music group that would cause members of the company to react towards them in this manner. No one likes someone who doesn’t play by the rules, because in the end it’s only going to hinder progress, not help it.
Internships are often tricky when it comes to getting paid. Many people will only intern if they are getting paid, while others are fine with just interning for the experience. I personally am okay with not getting paid depending on the job. If it were a great opportunity that will help me gain connections for the future, then I would not be as upset if I did not get paid. If the internship is a lot of busy work and typical intern tasks, then I would not be as okay with not getting paid for my labor. If you are interning at a big company like Warner Music Group, then there is no reason for them not to pay you because they have plenty of money to give to their employees for their work. If it was a smaller company with tighter budgets that is a different story. Those interns should have been paid from the beginning for their work.
Post a Comment