Unpaid interns have little protection under the law.

• Author: Jansen, Stephanie

Imagine spending years in university, only to graduate and find out that in order to secure a job, you would have to work an undetermined amount of time for free. At the end of the internship, there will be no assurance of employment; instead, you can chalk it up to getting some good experience and, hopefully, a reference.

This is precisely what many students are finding themselves faced with: the increasingly competitive job market forces graduates to essentially extend their education by taking a job high in expectations, and low in compensation. Worse, because of the lack of regulation around internships, many students find themselves in situations where they do not know their rights, and are unsure of what they can reasonably expect or demand.

In some cases, internships are a required part of obtaining a degree. But, in many reported cases, internships have preyed on young people. New graduates tend to choose an internship with the hopes it will result in reference letters, but the work students are being asked to do can sometimes be qualified as mistreatment by the employers. Filing a complaint is risky and can result in the reference letter being revoked. Worse, the profound lack of regulations and enforcement has contributed to the mishandling of an entire employment industry. The absence of oversight has become a hot issue in the federal government, due in part to a tragic death of an Edmonton student.

Andy Ferguson was one of those students. Studying radio and television at NAIT in Edmonton, Andy had a four-month unpaid internship for Astral Media. Their stations include "The Bear" and "Virgin Radio." This practicum was mandatory to graduate, but Andy was also working as a paid intern at the same radio stations. In other words, he was working up to sixteen hours at a time in both positions. After one of those very shifts, Andy crossed the centerline while driving and hit a gravel truck head on at 6:00 in the morning following an overnight shift. He was killed.

Federal laws do not protect interns at this time. Each province has its own statutory provisions to deal with employment standards, though many are unspecific about internships. For the purposes of understanding the ambiguity of the laws around internships, here is a very brief review of provincial statutes.

Provincial Law--A Survey

British Columbia: Employment Standards Act

Unpaid internships are illegal unless the internship meets one of the two requirements: the internship...