FCP-L: [FCP-L] Re: Laugh or Cry from Craigslist

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

[FCP-L] Re: Laugh or Cry from Craigslist

Andy,

The key points - # 3 & #4

> Posted by: Andy Edwards
> The U.S. Department of Labor ....
> 3. The trainees do not displace regular employees,
> 4. The employer that provides the training derives no immediate
> advantage from the activities of the trainees ...
> Catch 22 for a lot of business's.
> Andy Edwards

Not a Catch 22 at all. Basically you can't use unpaid interns instead
of hiring paid employees in some capacity. That tends to fall under
slavery guidelines (no joke). If you've ever looked into the tons of
major corporations who hire interns in the engineering fields, these
are all paid positions for the term of a semester or quarter or such.
No promise of future employments, but a pay check and college credit.

I've run (unpaid) internship programs before for companies that I
managed. The ground rules were that you had to be part of a real
college, trade school or university program for which you received
credit. You didn't do any "real" work, i.e. editing, dubbing, etc.
unless this was in a helping or observation mode with a trained
employee. Yes, you typed labels, got lunches, coffee, did shipping
etc. We didn't take anyone who just called and said, "Hey I want to
learn the business. Can I just hang around and observe for free?"
Their internship had to be part of a curriculum.

I started in radio and in a nearby town one station owner had a
reputation for running a real scam with DJs. The minimum wage then was
$1.80/hour. He hired kids who wanted to be in radio at a $1.80, but
then deducted $.60/hour as a "training fee". This was for a 3-month
period. At the end of the probationary time, the DJ was fired on some
excuse and he started over with another new DJ under the same deal. So
this was his way of only paying $1.20 instead of $1.80/hour.

- Oliver