Posts Tagged ‘work experience’
A dog of a job?
So a spaniel applied for a job this week. It’s entirely possible that a chinchilla and a cat applied, too, among others. They might’ve all belonged to hacks. Funny? Well maybe. But let’s be serious for a second. £5,700 a year for a 40-hour week? That’s £2.74 an hour.
A few choice facts for you: the National Minimum Wage is £3.57 an hour for under-18s, £4.83 for 18 to 21-year-olds, and £5.80 an hour for workers aged 22 or older. The National Council for Work Experience is very clear about work experience: you can’t use the term for just anything. National Minimum Wage legislation means UK employers can no longer offer unpaid work experience unless it’s part of a course of study. They do, but they shouldn’t. Accepted wisdom (to which I can’t now find the reference) says it’s OK for up to a month.
A few more facts for you: if you’re doing work experience (say, as an “editorial intern”) the company should make sure you don’t satisfy the workers test. You should not have a contract of employment, a contract to perform work or provide services, set hours where you’re obliged to work (and work you’re obliged to do within those hours), or be rewarded through money or benefits in kind.
If you do treat someone as a worker, you are obliged to pay them the National Minimum Wage. Voluntary workers are exempted from the NMW, but only genuine ones who work for charities, fundraising bodies, etc. Not wannabe journalists being taken for a ride.
Although of course there’s a queue of people wanting to work for nothing, like the girl I met who was covering film premieres for a glossy mag’s website. She’d been doing this for free for six months. I offered her some contacts who might pay for her material, and she looked aghast. “But they’re letting me write!” she exclaimed. And the sad thing is, some people won’t understand what’s wrong with that statement.
