The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ensures that all interns employed in a firm are paid a minimum wage that covers each hour they have worked and also caters for any overtime in the event that they work for more than 40 hours in every week. For this reason, every intern employed in a company for a given amount of time is subject to an agreed amount of pay, failure to which they are allowed to sue the company for compensation.
The Supreme Court has been in charge of dealing with labor laws since time immemorial, ever since the FLSA was established back in 1938 by President Roosevelt. The Law is required to focus majorly on the minimum wages and maximum work hours for employees, with the maximum work hours being set between 35 and 40 hours and an initial minimum wage of $15. The law also prevents the exploitation of workers and employment of children.
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A look into the case between two unpaid interns and a firm in New York, Fox Searchlight and Fox Entertainment Group can best be used to explain how best the situation of interns should be handled. Eric Glatt and Alexander Footman worked as unpaid interns in the production of the film titled Black Swan . Eric Glatt had graduated from New York University but his graduate program failed to offer him credit to the internship and he thus enrolled in a different program. He interned in the accounting department where he worked two days a week for 7 or 8 hours. His job description entailed filing documents, organizing menus, copying, scanning and running other errands. Alexander Footman, on the other hand, graduated from Wesleyan University and interned for the Black Swan under the Production Office Coordinator where he would work for ten hours each day for 5 days a week. His duties included setting up office furniture, watermarking scripts, getting coffee and making deliveries. He was however later replaced with another unpaid intern. The plaintiffs went ahead to file a complaint with the claim that they were employees under the FLSA and NYLL. However, the firm responded by denying any knowledge of the two being employees.
In its original decision, the district court decided that the two plaintiffs were treated unfairly and unlawfully classified as unemployed. This means that the two were required to be treated as employed interns and thus required payment for the services they had rendered to the firm. The Court’s decision is with regards to the circumstances under which an unpaid intern can be considered an employee, with reference to the FLSA, thereby being compensated for the services that had earlier on been rendered to the company. However, factors that were put into consideration before the decision was made included the number of hours that the interns worked, number of days of rest and the minimum wage stated in the New York Labor Laws (NYLL). The plaintiffs were justified in suing the firm since they were not paid any wages or overtime at any given point of time, given that they worked the maximum amount of time assigned to them. The fact that they were assigned specific work schedules means that an unsigned contract was agreed upon and thus they qualify to be regarded as employees. Their laid out duties such as running errands and making deliveries that resulted in benefits of the producers at the firm also forms part of the argument for the pay of the interns. In their payment, the firm should include any overtime and wage supplements to ensure that they are paid like any other employees at the firm. 29 U.S.C. ss 206-07 NYLL provides specifications for wages, for which it states that the minimum wage should be more than the minimum provided by the federal state. The district court only supported hat the two men were to be paid but that were not guaranteed of jobs in the firms where they had interned, as stated in one of the criteria in the Department of Labor factors.
However, there is no clarification between paid employees and unpaid interns in the FLSA. The Supreme Court decided that interns would be regarded based on the fact that their work did not interfere with that of normal employees, they did not displace the other employees, they were undergoing training and thus did not expect to be paid wages and no benefits were obtained from the work done by the interns. For this reason, the appellate court decision was mainly in favor of the defendant. This is also based on the information contained in the Department of Labor on the criteria for discerning an intern from an employee. This criteria thus classified the two men as ‘trainees’ rather than employees and thus sought to ensure that the two were not paid. The main reason for the two not being paid, according to the Department of Labor, was because they were present in the firm as interns who were not entitled to any pay or jobs upon completion of the internship.
With regards to the present situation of the company, the issue of whether interns should or should not be paid is a matter of interest, bearing in mind that internship programs are required to provide a chance for education and training for the interns. Exploitation of interns while at the workplace has a higher chance of occurring in the event that no initial agreement is made. Using free labor may be beneficial to the firm, but it is important for the firm to establish a contract with each intern, over the number of hours they are required to work and the minimum wage that they can get. Having a contract will ensure that the interns are compensated for the work done, in the event that the firm agrees not to pay wages. It will also ensure that the employer does not get to benefit freely from the efforts of unpaid interns. Under this contract, a minimum amount of time should be set for each intern to work, and terms for employment upon exceeding this minimum time clearly stated. The contract should also contain a test to ascertain the boundaries between interns and employees, as in the Department of Labor, to increase its competency. This will show the status of an employee and help in planning the salaries of the registered employees. It is also important for the firm to give the interns duties that actually give them experience in the specific fields that they aspire to become professionals in. This will ensure that immediate advantages are earned both ways. This way, both expectations of the interns and of the firm will be met through an understanding, without having to be dragged to court for exploitation of interns, thereby maintaining the good image of the firm.
