Brussels interns demand decent work

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Concern is growing about the uncertain conditions faced by thousands of young people who flock to European capitals like Brussels each year for internships that many say are menial, badly supervised, and poorly paid.

“Instead of hiring an intern for six months without paying him and without giving him the chance to acquire a paid position at the end, don’t hire anyone,” said Giacomo (not his real name), a former intern at the European Parliament. “Or else let’s re-establish slavery, because it is slavery”.

In 2012, Giacomo, then a 23-year-old political science graduate from Naples, worked for six months without pay for an Italian politician in Brussels.

He believed this was the only way to gain the experience he would need later to be considered for paid work.

He is not alone.

A 2011 survey by the European Youth Forum (YFJ), which represents about 100 youth organizations, found that three out of four interns receive no or insufficient compensation for their work.

In July this year, about 200 interns held a “Sandwich Protest” at Place du Luxembourg in Brussels outside the Parliament.

The name derived from the common practice of interns attending lunchtime talks in search of free sandwiches.

One of the organisers was Gervase Poulden, a 24-year-old Brit who was interning at the United Nations.

He says interns do not just want fair pay for a fair day’s work, but also proper supervision to help them learn new skills.

A proposed Council Recommendation on a Quality Framework for Traineeships, is due to be announced by the European Commission before the end of the year.

The YFJ argues this should be based on the European Quality Charter on Internships and Apprenticeships – drafted by the YFJ – under which internships targeting graduates “should ideally not exist”.

Where they do the Charter states these should include remuneration above the poverty line, social security benefits, multiple evaluations and a transparent job description.

 

A “malfunctioning” labour market

Each October and March, more than one thousand newcomers arrive at the European Parliament and Commission for placements that rarely last longer than six months.

“It’s very hard to keep sustained pressure from interns because we’re all so transitory,” Poulden said from London, where he has returned to take up a job with the British government.

That’s where Pierre-Julien Bosser, Régis Pradal and Nicholas Wenzel come in.

The two social entrepreneurs are the anointed successors to the Sandwich Protest, and the creators of a new website called InternsGoPro.

Interns will use the site to rate their employer who will then receive a label, certifying how they performed against certain criteria including remuneration and training.

Job seekers will be able to upload their CVs for free and search for roles according to what they value most.

“We think the labour market for youth is malfunctioning,” said Pradal, a 26-year-old business graduate.

“Internships are becoming longer; you have to do more of them.”

Bosser said the result is internships “normalise working for free”, placing more people in precarious situations.

Meanwhile, they are skeptical that all 28 EU member states will reach a binding agreement on the rights of trainees.

“We hope they reach an agreement, but if they do we are afraid it will be the lowest common denominator,” Bosser said.

At present, both the EU Parliament and the Commission have a two-tiered system for internships.

Applicants who snare an illustrious Robert Schuman scholarship at the Parliament for example, receive about 1200 euros per month, as well as professional training and evaluation. But another group – known in the Commission as those doing a “stage atypique” – are brought in to different offices unofficially, and are rarely paid.

Then there are the politicians themselves. Some pay their interns, others don’t.

“Every member of the European parliament gets 20,000 euros each month for office costs,” Pradal said.

“Are you seriously telling me they can’t afford to pay their interns?”