'Media illegally exploiting workers' says NUJ

Media companies are breaking the law by using bogus work experience placements to cover full-time jobs.

That's the finding of a survey by the NUJ which has exposed widespread exploitation of people trying to break into the sector.

The union believes that many examples highlighted by qualified journalists infringe the law on the minimum wage. It is writing to companies warning them it will name organisations refusing to take action.

The NUJ is supportive of genuine work experience placements for journalism students, but the survey suggests that many companies are expecting newly qualified journalists to do proper full-time jobs for little or no money.

The survey focussed on the experiences of people who qualified as journalists in the last five years.

It found that:

• more than 50 per cent completed work experience placements after achieving their qualification, with the majority receiving little if any payment
• one-in-five who did post-qualification work experience undertook a placement for three months or more, with some working for more than six months unpaid
• of those people who had material published or broadcast, 78 per cent received no payment for their work
• one-in-four claimed to have completed a placement at an organisation that wouldn't be able to function normally without people on work experience
• more than half felt that they didn't get enough support or guidance during their placements

The union believes that the internship culture has huge implications for diversity in the media, barring the profession to those who can't afford to work for free.

NUJ General Secretary, Jeremy Dear, said: "This isn't work experience, it's exploitation. We're all in favour of students getting a feel for life in a newsroom, but in many cases companies are just looking for free labour.

"Demanding that people put in months of work for free doesn't help companies find the best journalists, it helps them find the ones that can afford to put in the hours without pay.

"Even those able to work for free are often getting poor quality experience. Some are given purely administrative tasks and get no editorial work at all, whilst others are expected to churn out professional material without getting any training from experienced staff."

The survey is part of a major campaign by the union to tackle the unfair ways in which media businesses are using work experience placements to exploit newly qualified and student journalists.

Jeremy Dear added: "Organisations can't go on treating newly qualified journalists as a lower class of worker to which they have no responsibilities. We will continue to campaign for employers and government to bring an end to this damaging exploitation."

Read the report here and download the NUJ Work Experience guidelines.