The British Arts Sector Could Potentially Be Violating a Law by Not Paying Their Interns for Their Roles
The Sutton Trust, a charity that aims to improve social mobility in the UK, found that 86% of interns in the UK’s creative sector were unpaid as of 2018. Progress has been incremental. The trust said in November that the creative industries remained “elitist”. It recommended strengthening the law on UK arts sector unpaid internships and penalising employers offering them as ways to improve access. Arts employers could be breaking the law by relying on unpaid interns to perform roles that should be left to paid workers, preventing young people from working-class backgrounds from gaining a foothold, experts have said.
Image Courtesy- Marbleism
A 2023 study into job quality in the arts sector cited research showing that nearly nine out of ten workers said they worked for free in some way, and just under half of those under 30 said they had completed an unpaid internship. According to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), unpaid internships in London could cost an individual up to £6,300 over six months.
Experts have warned that employers in the arts may be breaking the law by using unpaid interns to perform roles that should be left to paid workers, preventing young people from working-class backgrounds from establishing themselves.
According to them, organizations are avoiding paying interns by taking advantage of loopholes in employment laws, which prevent members of the working class from obtaining paid positions in the sector.
Classifying Internships as “real work”
The assertion follows the alarm expressed by well-known individuals in the arts and cultural sector on the dearth of working-class talent in their respective fields. In contrast to the national average of 7%, 30% of artistic directors and other creative leaders were privately schooled, according to a Guardian poll of the 50 organizations that receive the greatest funding from the Arts Council.
According to British law, interns who fulfil specific requirements—like set hours, days, and responsibilities—are entitled to compensation. However, those attempting to increase access and growth claim that the creative sectors have grown accustomed to employing youth without consequence.
Employers are allegedly depending on the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 and its internship exemptions, which are meant for individuals who work for free as volunteers, as part of their coursework, or in temporary work experience roles.
According to Martin Bright, the head of the youth employment charity Creative Society, firms continued to offer unpaid internships “because they can get away with it” due to an excess of recent graduates. “However, you must compensate interns if they do anything that improves your company’s bottom line; otherwise, it’s slave labor,” he stated. In certain creative industries, this is completely integrated into the infrastructure. Museums and galleries are the worst. Being able to work there is regarded as a privilege.
Emma Gross, an employment partner at the law firm Spencer West, said the law on unpaid internships was easy to exploit. “Common tactics include misclassifying interns as volunteers, offering expenses-only roles while assigning real work responsibilities, or using unpaid internships or training as trial periods for future employment,” she said to the Guardian, a digital daily.
Exploiting Creatives and their Passion in the Work Field
In actuality, interns are essentially given employment roles due to the responsibilities placed on young people in a highly competitive but financially strapped industry. One founder of a charity compared it to “slave labour,” where employers provide a fictitious sense of privilege in exchange for money.
According to Sara Whybrew, head of skills and workforce development at the British Film Institute, “the creative sector has been using unpaid internships for so long without penalty that it has become an embedded way of doing things.”
The definition of a worker and the circumstances under which the national minimum wage must be paid are clearly defined by law. Anecdotal data, however, suggests that some employers are not entirely aware of the criteria that determine a worker’s status.
The Conservative MP and chair of the culture, media and sport committee, Caroline Dinenage, said to the Guardian, it was important the government address access challenges in its employment law reforms.
She said telling British stories, “whether in our national museums, public service broadcasters or national portfolio organisations”, meant representing the whole country, not just those who could “afford to make the sacrifices needed to get a foot in the door”.
Strengthening UK Arts Sector Labor Laws
“There is a representation problem in the industry,” Dinenage added, citing statistics that reveal six out of ten arts and culture workers in the UK are from middle-class families. “Success is not shared equally, and those without financial stability find it especially challenging to establish a career in the industry due to its precariousness.”
She stated that “stricter enforcement and penalties for employers who misclassify interns” and “clearer legal definitions that distinguish between interns, volunteers, and workers” were the only ways to stop this.
Under its “plan to make work pay”, the authorities have vowed to ban unpaid internships “except when they are part of an education or training course”. But what is considered an internship, and how any new law might be enforced, is yet to be confirmed.
Feature Image Credit- Hanes Gallery
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