Do you pay your interns?

CORPORATE COMMS NEWS BITE: The use of unpaid interns by various strands of the PR industry is the big talking point of the moment, it seems, mainly because of a recent BBC documentary that criticised fashion agency Modus Publicity for its use of unpaid trainees.

Modus boss Julian Vogel told PR Week that he felt he had been “stitched up” by the BBC programme makers, adding that the use of unpaid interns was not unusual in his branch of PR, and that such positions offered great training and were a springboard for aspiring fashion publicists to their first paid job. Nevertheless, he admitted he was now reviewing his company’s interns policy.

Commenting on the issue of unpaid interns, the head of agency trade body the PRCA, Francis Ingham, told the trade magazine: “The issue with internships in the industry is a difficult one to talk about sensibly. In an ideal world everyone would be paid at least the minimum wage but I recognise that doesn’t happen and it’s some way off from happening”.

Some people would like to make it happen much quicker though. Former Burson-Marsteller director Robert Minton-Taylor, who now teaches at Leeds Business School, told PR Week he was “ashamed” of his industry using interns in this way, telling the magazine: “I’d like to work with the PRCA, for which I have high regard, to devise a code of conduct to rid us of this odious nil pay graduate culture”.

Which is all well and good, but what do current interns think about all this? Well, the CIPR asked one to comment, and you can read their blog on the issue here.

Posted Thursday February 10 2011 by Chris Cooke

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