Employers may be intrigued to hear radio advertisements talking about businesses taking on graduate "interns" to benefit their business, as part of the government's help for newly qualified graduates. In the current economic climate, new graduates are finding it increasingly hard to find work and the government is promoting this form of work experience as a potential benefit to both graduates and businesses.
"Intern" is a new arrival in the vocabulary of employment law, and readers may be more familiar with it as a term used to describe a young person associated with the former president of the United States, Bill Clinton. But what place does an "intern" have in UK businesses? And more to the point, what are your obligations as an employer if you take one on?
Impact of the National Minimum Wage
The main barrier to taking on an "intern" is the requirement in the United Kingdom to pay at least the National Minimum Wage (NMW), currently £4.83 per hour, for workers aged 18 to 21 and £5.80 for workers aged 22 and over.
There are no specific "opt-outs" for workers described as "interns" and because the NMW applies to a wide range of "workers", not just employees, the NMW is very likely to apply. Indeed, the government recommends that in most cases when an "intern" is taken on, at least the NMW should be paid.
In fact, to avoid the requirement to pay the NMW to an intern, an employer would have to:
The problem with taking this approach is likely to be that the placement offers little of value to either the intern or the business.
What about employment status?
Another area for businesses to consider is the likely employment status of an intern. Employees have certain rights, including the right not to be unfairly dismissed, and in some cases these rights apply from day one of employment.
One problem with the issue of employment status is that there can never be absolute certainty about an intern's status, even if the worker and the business set things out in writing at the outset. This is because workers can make a claim for employment rights in employment tribunals and tribunals are free to look at all the circumstances when making a ruling on the matter. Tribunals are increasingly prepared to find that a worker is an "employee" even when there is paperwork to say he or she is not.
Interns – a summary