Good to see Nick Clegg’s push to sort out internships reaching another industry. After public relations, now it is the turn of the fashion industry to face the spotlight, as Vogue reports:
HMRC has warned fashion labels against exploiting their interns and treating them as employees – but without pay. The organisation sent cautionary letters to 102 fashion houses that exhibited during London Fashion Week in September, who they have not named…
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg today showed his support for the HMRC’s announcement.
“I strongly urge fashion houses and designer labels to make sure they are treating interns fairly,” Clegg us today. “Where an individual is entitled to the minimum wage they should receive it. Internships provide valuable opportunities in opening up doors for the future and they should be available to everyone, not just those who can afford to work for nothing.
“I welcome HMRC’s action today and I encourage employers in the fashion industry to sign up to our Business Compact, where they can commit to reforming their internships schemes to ensure opportunities are available to young people from all walks of life.”
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4 Comments
‘“I strongly urge fashion houses and designer labels to make sure they are treating interns fairly,” Clegg us today. “Where an individual is entitled to the minimum wage they should receive it. Internships provide valuable opportunities in opening up doors for the future and they should be available to everyone, not just those who can afford to work for nothing.’
Well done – My daughter who is at Leeds University is a Fashion intern and it’s good to see Nick Clegg taking this action – i will email this to her with the link
Thanks NC & you Mark for the blog
David – perhaps while you are at it you could cc your email to the following organisation who think this is ok….
All our internships are voluntary. This means that you will not be under any form of contract to work set hours or undertake set tasks, you will also not be paid a wage.
Oh sorry – the address you need is [email protected]
Being in government, wouldn’t a bit of movement with IPSA specifically on parliamentary internship pay be the one thing that we definitely can do something on. It does somewhat close out people that aren’t wealthy/Londoners from getting that experience…
Dale – what do you mean?
MPs can pay interns through their Parliamentary staff allowances (in which case they are – and should be called – staff!) or have unpaid interns and claim expenses.
These are the current intern rules from the IPSA website:
http://www.parliamentarystandards.org.uk/FAQs/Pages/Do%20I%20have%20to%20pay%20my%20intern%20a%20wage,%20or%20just%20expenses.aspx