Employment law to change in favour of interns

Published on 29 Jun 2010 under category: legal

Interns should be given a training wage, according to one industry body.

The Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD) has called on the government to tackle the problem of exploitative internships.

Its research has found that over a third (37 per cent) of internships go unpaid.

Instead, interns should be paid at least £2.50 an hour, the CIPD argued.

Changing the status of interns under employment law could lead to more employment disputes, as interns challenge the terms of contracts.

Commenting on its proposal for the minimum wage, the CIPD's Tom Richmond said that the relatively low level of the training wage could assuage concerns about its impact on employers.

"We believe that the introduction of this training wage would reflect the contribution that interns make, which is likely to be less than that of a fully trained member of staff, while addressing concerns over reductions in the number of internship opportunities that may result from all interns being paid the minimum wage," he said.

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