2014.03.28

Labour ministry move against illegal internships ‘long overdue’

Ontario is finally cracking down on illegal unpaid internships, which will be a big boost to CWA Canada’s ongoing battle against exploitation of all media workers.

The first targets of what the Ministry of Labour says will be a province-wide blitz in all sectors were The Walrus and Toronto Life. The popular magazines have long had unpaid internships, but they violate the Employment Standards Act because they are not approved by a college or university, nor are they co-op programs designed to give secondary school students work experience.

CWA Canada Director Martin O'Hanlon says the action by the Labour Ministry corrects a long-running injustice and is long overdue.

"Working for free is unconscionable. It's bad for the worker and bad for society," O'Hanlon says.

"This isn't a situation where students are going in for a week or two to learn how the trade works. These companies are taking advantage of graduates for free labour. It also creates an uneven playing field where, in order to get a job, you have to agree to provide free labour first."

"It's very simple: Everyone deserves to be paid for their labour. That's a cornerstone of our economy."

CWA Canada’s largest Local, the Canadian Media Guild, has been wrestling with this issue for several years. In the fall of 2012, the CMG was involved in a ‘Will Work for Exposure’ conference at Ryerson University that brought together students, professionals, artists and union leaders to discuss wage theft, copyright and workers’ rights.

Unpaid internships have long been a controversial issue in the culture sector, which has been particularly vulnerable to precarious working conditions. Many in the industry agree that the 2008 financial crisis turned exploitation of media workers from an anomaly into an accepted business practise.