Hollywood's Unpaid Interns Winning Lawsuits

Hollywood entertainment, production and management companies that are repeatedly hiring unpaid interns need to wake up and sniff the lawsuits in the air.  There are many lawsuits and if they're not settled out of court, they're being settled to the tune of millions of dollars with court ordered judgments. 

Eric Glatt, one of the unpaid interns that worked on the production of 'Black Swan' and filed the first intern lawsuit in 2011, will be featured in a story this Sunday night at 9:00 pm on public radio in Los Angeles 88.3 FM.  The 'Black Swan' lawsuit still is not settled.  However, Fox Searchlight now pays their interns.

Glatt is standing up for all of the unpaid interns in Hollywood and there are surprisingly still far too many.

Big studios are now implementing pay for their interns after learning the hard way. NBCUniversal and Viacom also pay all of their interns now.  

Let's look at some of these settlements that paved the way for paid internships.

NBCUniversal settlement for unpaid interns:  $6.4 million.

Viacom settlement for unpaid interns:  $7.2 million.

Condé Naste settlement for unpaid interns:  $5.8 million.

Warner Music Group settled with unpaid interns reportedly for $4.2 million.

Lionsgate settled with unpaid interns reportedly for $1 million.

Elite Model Management settlement for unpaid interns:  $450,000.

PBS' Charlie Rose Productions settlement for unpaid interns:  $250,000.

ICM settled out of court with unpaid interns reportedly for $725,000.

CBS and MGM are facing new unpaid intern lawsuits.

Every major news outlet is reporting on unpaid internship lawsuits and the settlements that follow.  If an entertainment company or production wants a headline in the New York Times, LA Times, Associated Press or Reuters, continue hiring unpaid interns.  But it may not be the press your company needs.

Read the story about the unpaid intern who sued Warner Music Group.  He was homeless while working at WMG.  There are heartfelt stories about struggling unpaid interns that are more willing to share their stories in today's environment.  There are also attorneys with experience that will take on your intern case.

There are stories about unpaid interns all over the Internet.

I personally know unpaid Hollywood interns who are living on credit cards to pay for the gas in their cars so they can work at their unpaid internships Monday through Friday.  If it's an unpaid internship for a production, that means random hours during the week, location travel at the intern's cost, plus long weekends of shooting time.  Those same unpaid interns are paying for their lunch meal with quarters, dimes and nickels.  Some of the interns have been on the job six months or a year and all of that time for free.  Yet, they're being treated as employees as they're plugged into the business model to enhance the company with the skills they already have instead of learning new skills or acquiring new training.  Some unpaid interns are even given titles and company business cards to hand out to garner clients or more business for the company, yet they remain unpaid. Many of the unpaid interns in Hollywood are in their mid to late 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s. They are not current college students who are earning college credit in return for unpaid employment.  They simply want to work in the entertainment industry and hope that an internship will open the door to a paid entry level position. Companies are using the unpaid internship as the new business model so the company's profit can be higher for the owners.  

Unfortunately, working in an unpaid internship will not earn someone paid work in the industry. Read the intern stories and comments on Deadline.com.  Clearly, the UTA Joblist puts it in writing in many of the job offerings:  "Internships do not qualify as experience."  

Craigslist has tons of unpaid internship offerings daily on their Los Angeles website for entertainment companies, media companies, management companies, and production companies.  

When I was in high school, I had an internship at a law firm and I was a paid intern.  When I was in college in the late 80s, again I had two internships.  One was at a prominent television station and the other was at a prominent radio station.  Both of those positions were in the news departments and they were paid internships. My paid internships were all in Pennsylvania.

I was shocked to learn that there are so many unpaid internships in Hollywood, California.

Look at the case of Eric Glatt.  He was not a typical intern.  He was in his 40s.  He came into the internship from a financial background.  And they put him to work as an accounting clerk in the accounting department. He used his own cell phone and personal laptop computer to do accounting work in the office.  Hundreds of hours later, he was still an unpaid intern.  So, what did he learn that was new?  What was his educational training?  Why wasn't he paid at least the minimum wage or the same amount as the other accounting clerks on the show?

I have no idea why Hollywood skipped out on paying interns or how the movement exploded.  This is not an acceptable model to have unpaid interns doing the work of full-time employees for six hours a day whether it's a startup business or not.  If you have dozens of unpaid interns cycling through your company, I guarantee you that one of those interns knows how to read and they will see that they have a potential lawsuit against your company.  It's a headline story.  If you're not in touch with current events, your unpaid interns are in touch, because while they're working for free for you, they're also looking for paid employment.

It's expensive to live in Los Angeles and New York, where most of these unpaid internships are being offered in the entertainment industry.

Warning:  If you're running a production, an agency, an entertainment or management company and you're hiring unpaid interns in Hollywood and you're profiting from their efforts, watch out.  You could potentially face a lawsuit. And every intern who files a lawsuit seems to be winning.  

Rule of thumb:  "the internship experience is for the benefit of the intern."  It has to offer educational training. If you're profiting from the skills the intern comes in the door with including pre-existing skills that replaces what would be the skills of paid employees, you're potentially in trouble if an intern wants to be paid.  Do you want to take a chance to see if your unpaid intern becomes disgruntled and files a complaint with the Labor Board or a major headline grabbing lawsuit?  Is that how you want your name in lights?

Bottom line:  Earn respect from the public and the entire Hollywood community by paying your interns.  The studios are leading the way by paying their interns as entry level employees. It's 2015. Everyone should follow suit.