The Socialist 18 August 2010

Action now to defeat cuts!

Action now to defeat cuts!

Pakistan: Workers' solidarity urgently needed

Floods in Pakistan bring devastation - poor suffer most

Youth must fight for a future!

Student demo should be start of the fightback

No to advice service cuts

Decent pay for interns

Uni bosses say cuts will cause closures

Forecasts of fragile economic growth

Cameron sticks the boot into our council housing

Private-profit company granted 'snoopers' charter'

Private Finance Initiative: A licence to print money

Coventry Against the Cuts challenge councillors' 'legal obligation'

Northern Ireland: Belfast Stop the Cuts Alliance established

Bromley care workers fight privatisation and job cuts

Defend Our Community Services launched in Bracknell

Cuts devastate mental health services

The legacy of Leon Trotsky

Kirklees Unison strike ballot launched

CWU members accept BT pay deal

Debate how to fight back at Socialism 2010

Tube staff vote for action against cuts

Jobs under threat at Ministry of Justice

Airport workers win improved offer from BAA

Workplace news in brief

Socialist Party summer camp - book now!

Russia's raging wildfires - a crisis of government policies

Bradford must organise against the EDL

Birmingham: Community says 'No' to racist spy cameras

Previous issues, etc

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Decent pay for interns

The release of the report 'Why interns need a fair wage' by the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) think tank has received much media attention.

Matt Dobson

On behalf of YFJ I was asked to explain our views on internships in debates with speakers from the Federation of Small Businesses on BBC Radio 5 - Live and the World Service.

I explained that young people's aspirations to take up internships as a pathway to an exciting career can be opportunistically used by big business to profit from their free or cheap labour without any real intention of offering employment.

We welcomed the IPPR report because it raised the issue of interns being exploited but explained that more should have been demanded from employers and the government.

In some areas the report gives employers the benefit of the doubt by hinting that bosses are simply "unaware" that they are breaking the law by not paying interns.

Its vague proposals have meant that David Willetts, Tory education minister, welcomed its publication and claimed that the government will introduce more internships for young people.

Internships could be used by the government to force unemployed young people off benefits into "voluntary" public services to replace experienced public sector workers who have lost their jobs in the cuts onslaught.

The IPPR report calls for interns to be paid the adult minimum wage of £5.80.

But as the report states, its own interns earn the London Living Wage of £7.60 an hour and have rights to holiday and sick pay.

YFJ demands that all interns are paid a wage that covers living and travel expenses. In expensive areas, such as the South East, this should be at least £10 an hour.

In a trade union-organised workplace for example, the negotiated rate may be higher and an intern doing the same work as a permanent worker should also receive this rate.

Interns should have real contracts as well as the opportunity to join and be active in a trade union.

The IPPR calls for trade unions to take up "test cases" of exploited interns at employment tribunals. But the role of trade unions in protecting and fighting for the rights and improved conditions of interns will have to go further than this.

They will need to organise interns with all sections of the workforce to fight back against cuts. Two of YFJ's trade union supporters, Unite and BECTU, are already campaigning for this to happen.

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Action now to defeat cuts!