Those reading this might be interested to note that on this site’s jobs page (http://www.viceland.com/issues_uk/jobs.php) they are advertising for unpaid interns! Equally interesting is the fact that this is actually illegal in the UK, due to the National Minimum Wage regulations

OI DICKWAD!! It’s fuckin voluntary isnt it!!!!! It is not illegal to do voluntary work…god u r thick know one would actually give u a fuckin job anyway! Your attitude is laughable the fact that you think u will get a job in the industry this way!! hahahaha!!!

S you are a fucking twat. To work in magazines you have to start by being an intern. Suck it up!!
If you don’t want to work unpaid find a new career to attempt to get your sorry ass in to. Coz u will get fucking nowhere in this one.

Oi commentator - it is only legal to do voluntary work for a charity (ie a company registered with charitable status). And workers do not have the right to forego their right to payment where it is due. It would make a bit of a mockery of the NMW laws if this were not the case wouldn’t it?

Also, it is spelt no-one.

‘Fellow Intern’ sorry you feel like this, but you are wrong. If you will work for free now as an ‘intern’ then these unscrupulous employers will simply move on to the next ‘intern’ once you are finished. So how do you ever find your first paying job if people like yourself are willing to work for free? Do you think these companies can’t afford a paltry £200 per week? Or do you think they are taking advantage of your eagerness?

And for what it’s worth my wife and I are both freelancers in the industry and have written for 4 nationals plus a host of magazines.

I am not wrong, 90% of the staff with whom I work, all began as interns and are now paid members of staff. Yes i am sure there are some shit interns who never get any further than being someone’s unpaid skivvy, however I am already paid for freelance work that I do on a regular basis. To most people who end up working/interning in a magazine is because surprisingly they are passionate about what they do and want to achieve, so see the experience as a period in which to learn, make contacts and progress ones self… not just for a wage packet… money is not the reason I do this. If you are married and already so successful why the fuck are you commenting on blogs that are written by people who you think are so ignorant and wasting their time interning… why dont you go and write something for one of you “4 Nationals or host of magazines”.

‘I am not wrong, 90% of the staff with whom I work, all began as interns’ - I think if you ask them you’ll find that was in the days before the National Minimum Wage regulations. The practice is now illegal - I can guarantee you that uncategorically.

And what is your opinion then on how this effects the demographics of the industry? If the only way in is to work as an unpaid intern, how do those from less well-off backgrounds stand a chance? Is it fair that the industry remains one for the middle-classes who can afford to work for 6 months (as vice demand) without pay? How do you suggest that less well-off interns pay their rent or buy food, for example?

i am one of those less well off people!!! i dont come from a fuckin priviledged background at all, i have saved up all year working my ass off in other jobs to enable me to do a 3 month internship at a magazine knowing they would all be unpaid.

I know the whole system is shite! obviously it would be far preferable if i was getting paid as i am having to work every second god sends outside of my internship to be able to afford it but yeah exactly thats how the industry is at the moment. So if i wanna get in, i just have to put up with it and work fucking hard. Which I am prepared to do.

I totally agree it is shit that all the girls on my course who are rich are in a far better position than me to be able to do this like all year (i can only afford 3 months!). It is so frustrating that yeah i probably stand half the chance they do of getting a job purely because they have rich mums and dads!! But I will give it a good fuckin try anyway thanks!!

I come from a middle class family, have done quite a few internships and they still go on at me to get a job, haha

Very interesting exchange between S+ FELLOW INTERN - would love to get them in a room together! The fact of the matter is this - this sort of exploitation has got to stop. What’ s fascinating to me is how complicit S is in his/ her abuse. How S accepts the slavery as - just the way it is. If everybody said no, then the designers/ magazines/ brands would have NO choice but to pay. Another irony is how fashion - in the U. K.+ globally - is a huge employer+ makes massive MASSIVE profits+ projects itself as so wonderful+ clean+ ethical+ luxury etc. - but behind it all is utter misery+ degradation+ exploitation. That’ s without mentioning all the OTHER sleaziness. This sort of unpaid/ underpaid thing is regularly exposed as wrong elsewhere+ it’ s time it happened here. NOW! If they can’ t pay you - DON’ T do it! Why should anybody work for nothing on the off- chance that it might lead somewhere, MAYBE, 1 day? Sheesh! Let’ s start to putting a STOP to this bollocks!

S C I presume you mean that fellow intern accepts the slavery rather than myself?

Fellow intern I can’t understand how you can be in the position you are in and yet still support these ‘internships’. You do not have to accept that this is ‘just the way it is’ - the onl;y way it will change is if people make a stand against it. And people actually are making a stand against it and have been for some time, and it is changing things.

Google the term ‘TV WRAP’ and you will see the work that has been done in television to stop this terrible practice. Since this campaign, all the major broadcasters and large indies do not employ unpaid interns. Similarly, any reputable national paper/magazine will not take on unpaid interns BECAUSE IT IS NOW ILLEGAL.

I think you should re-think which side of the fence you sit on. And if you are interested, there is a clearly defined structure for employees to claim back all due wages from their employers anonymously. This structure exists because the practice is illegal and companies have no defence, and are forced to pay up the due wages.

in france it is now totally illegal to be an unpaid intern… they HAVE TO PAY YOU! i’ve done unpaid internships and as much as i learned loads i am still morally against it… these houses can DEFINITELY afford to pay everyone

ok well does someone wanna fill me in on how i can go about claiming my NMW back anon!!??? How does one do this??!! thanks!

Ok I have set up a googlemail account specifically for this so if Sarah, ‘fellow intern’, or anyone else for that matter would like further info, please contact me at nmwabuse@googlemail.com

Well I have actually contacted the NMW people and they said it is impossible for anyone to make a claim anon!! You need to make an official complaint about your “employer” and then they investigate them and so on and so on.

So hmmm…. if anything is going to stop you getting a job with them.. I think that might be it!!

Sarah it’s a shame you haven’t contacted me when I offered to help you with this…

I’ve helped many people make claims in the past, and claims CAN be made anonymously. I don’t want to disclose the details here so again I’d ask anyone who is interested to contact me at the email address I gave in my last post for further information. If you are paranoid about disclosing your email address to a stranger then simply set up a hotmial account and don’t use your real name.

You’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t it seems.

I did a 3 month unpaid internship, and even though i struggled financially during it, doors flew open after that. People thought that it showed a real passion and dedication to my goal (it seems a degree isn’t always enough).

I get that it’s illegal, but so are a lot of things really.

Models will always be underweight, kids will drink underage and people that have an all consuming ambition will do anything to reach their goal.

There is a lot of truth in what you say but I have to say I disagree with your blasé attitude towards this. Is it right that people should have to suffer so much financially to reach their goal in this industry? This is certainly not the case in any normal industry, where people get paid whilst they make their way up the ladder. Shouldn’t entry level jobs be handed out based on merit, rather than on the ability/willingness to work for free?
There will always be street muggings, rapes and murders but does that mean we should just accept it? Just because a lot of other illegal things occur is no reason to ignore it and carry on!

There are other issues to consider as well - on a 6 month internship at minimum wage, approx £1200 of income tax goes unpaid, along with £300 employees NI contributions and £300 employers NI contributions so the government is being done out of nearly £2k each time this happens. And if you were to have an accident at work, you would not be covered under your employers insurance because you are there as an illegal worker.