BUSINESS

Training or enslavement? Making internship ethical

Christopher Bruton, Published on 02/04/2018

» "Unpaid, unadvertised, unfair" is how the UK's Sutton Trust described the situation of many intern workers in that country. Enough real slavery still exists in the world today (including both in Thailand and in the UK). There is certainly no need to introduce institutionalised enslavement into established workplaces. However, many of the characteristics of slavery are fully part of the conditions of modern-day internship: no pay, hard work, long hours. While torture is presumably absent, there is the mental torture of fearing that a negative employer's report may deny an intern a successful subsequent employment opportunity.