Unpaid internships: moves to bolster crackdown on minimum wage breaches (UK)
The government is to increase attempts to crack down on employers abusing national minimum wage laws following successful moves to reclaim nearly £200,000 in wages owed to unpaid interns.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is planning to take more aggressive steps after HMRC's success over the last tax year in helping 167 people who identified themselves as interns, volunteers or work experience workers claw back £192,808 in unpaid wages.
BIS says that over the coming year it will launch a social media campaign, publish a student handout and encourage people to name bad employers for investigation.
In a letter to Labour MP Hazel Blears, the employment relations minister, Jo Swinson, said the government would produce the booklet to make graduates aware of their employment rights in time for this summer, when hundreds of thousands of UK students are expected to start hunting for work experience placements, which can last – unpaid – for many months.
full: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/may/14/unpaid-internships-crackdown-minimum-wage