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A little late to the party but now the politicians are getting involved. From The Telegraph:
Andy Burnham: BBC should end unpaid work experience
Former culture secretary Andy Burnham has attacked the BBC for taking on unpaid interns, saying that the practice is “not fair” and that the BBC should “set a better example”.
The BBC jobs website is currently offering 127 unpaid work experience placements, lasting up to four weeks full-time or 12 weeks part-time. The placements are often taken up by university students aspiring to a career in the media, and can even come with a job title.
Mr Burnham, who began his own career as an unpaid intern on a local newspaper, called on BBC chairman Sir Michael Lyons to end the practice.
“There are young people working within the BBC for long periods without pay. This is not fair to them, but more importantly it excludes many others who simply don’t have the means to support themselves,” said Mr Burnham. “We look to our national broadcaster to set a better example and not take advantage of the desire of young people to work within the media. The BBC needs to show leadership and put an end to this practice immediately.”
Mr Burnham has signed up to a campaign group, Intern Aware, which seeks to end the exemption of internships from the minimum wage rules, and calls on employers to pay all interns.
“We’ve heard stories of people who’ve gone for work experience at the BBC and been given titles such as ‘assistant producer’ but still been unpaid, which is in danger of breaking minimum wage legislation,” said Gus Baker from Intern Aware. “Each individual BBC programme will put an advert up for an unpaid internship, still of course overwhelmingly in London, which has problems for social mobility.”
Programmes currently advertising on the BBC website for work experience applicants include The Archers, Horizon, Holby City and Newsnight.
One university student, who was given a four-week BBC work experience placement working 12-hour days, five days a week, said: “I think in principle it’s entirely wrong and shouldn’t be allowed - obviously it makes working for the BBC something that is very exclusive, and basically only for the middle classes who have parents with a bit of money to help them. I feel very angry about it, but at the same time I’ve still readily put myself forward to do it. I was in a position where I felt I didn’t have a choice, where that was the only thing I could do to get the kind of career I want.”
A BBC source said it took on paid trainees and unpaid work experience placements, but not interns. The source said that all work experience placements were now recruited using an online form to minimise abuse, that BBC policy clearly states that work experience must not be used as a substitute for paid employment, and that the corporation works with schools and colleges to publicise the placements that are available.
The BBC receives licence fee income of £3.6billion a year, and disclosed earlier this year that it paid 382 of its managers more than £100,000 a year.
Separately, the CBI yesterday launched its Blueprint for the Creative Industries, saying: 'Effort must be focused on creating access to careers to help improve diversity and opportunity in the creative industries.'
A BBC spokeswoman said: “The BBC has a long and successful track record of training and developing young people from diverse backgrounds for careers in the Creative Industries. With work experience now a mandatory requirement for most schools and colleges, we receive hundred of applications from people who want to get work at the BBC and our policies ensure that people are selected based on merit.”
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