[game_edu] Internship question

[Ian D Horswill]

TL;DR: yes, it's illegal and interns can sue and win over it (the unpaid part, no idea about the non-compete clause)

FWIW, unpaid internships, as others have said, are illegal unless purely educational.  That’s at the Federal level.  The rule if I remember properly is that if the intern does anything that they would have otherwise needed a paid employee to do, then the intern has to be paid.

The government had not be enforcing the rule, so they proliferated, particularly in the entertainment industry.  But then there was a court case a couple of years ago (the Black Swan case) where the interns done back pay plus, I believe damages.  So there’s now precedent that interns can sue and win, and in addition, the government is being more activist about enforcement.

That’s led most HR departments (including the one at my university) to crack down on unpaid internships.  If I want to allow a student to work unpaid for me, I have to document exactly what the educational outcomes are that we’re seeking and certify that they’re not doing something I would otherwise need to hire someone for.

-ian

On 1/27/15, 10:05 PM, "Ben Chang" <changb3 at rpi.edu<mailto:changb3 at rpi.edu>> wrote:

Hi all,

I have a student who's been offered an unpaid internship.  The contract
has as non-compete that would bar him from doing game dev work in a
related field for one year after completion.  Is this normal for unpaid
internship?  It seems disadvantageous.   The only value he receives from
performing the work is experience to use towards future employment, but
he would be prevented from seeking employment doing the thing he'd
gotten experience doing.

thanks,

--Ben Chang

--
Benjamin Chang
Associate Professor, Department of the Arts
Director, Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
110 8th Street, Troy, NY 12180
changb3 at rpi.edu<mailto:changb3 at rpi.edu>
518.276.2366

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