SMH letters

The 7-Eleven scandal still stinks and is unresolved, the use of unscrupulous employment contractors by large companies to avoid their obligations festers on and the charity collectors scandal is breaking.

Instead of combating this behaviour, the government seeks to entrench and even subsidise the exploitation of vulnerable workers to the tune of $1000 a time, with a dodgy intern scheme ("All work, no pay: Turnbull's flawed plan for Australia's intern army", October 24). Servitude bordering on slavery is not innovation, Malcolm Turnbull.

Franz Weiss Maroubra

Yet another tactic from the rich to bleed the less well off even more.

Most industrious people would see this as a brilliant plan to teach people new skills and prepare them for the work force.

"Young people who have been on Centrelink for six months or more will receive a $200 "incentive payment" for completing 30-50 hours of unpaid labour with an employer"

A wonderful training scheme for the young ... it should give them working skills for employment instead of laying back collecting the dole.

Its another opportunity for the rogues to get cheap labour. Take the 1 grand from the govt use the " intern " for 6 months then sack them and take on another " intern " to wait tables or wash dishes.

The lead article of the thread is by

Clara Jordan-Baird is the National Policy Director of Interns Australia, the peak body representing workers undertaking internships and work placements in Australia.

" The internship program, however, creates 120,000 new interns, and labels their activities as "unpaid work experience", not employment. In addition, it'll be targeting industries where internships haven't previously been seen, such as motor trades, hospitality and retail. That's not fixing the problem, that's supercharging it on a massive scale: taking the brand of intern and bringing it to your mechanics, your designer stores and your cafes, without clarifying what it actually means. And with it, potentially replacing these jobs – and they are jobs – with interns. "

Just think,your steering or brakes could be worked on by an unpaid (non employee)intern or your food prepared by some one who is not that hygenic and you have no recourse in the event of a mishap as they are not an employee of the company 

Food prepared by an unhygenic intern - yes that is quite likely but this could also be said of a fully paid employee, however in the case of brakes or steering by an intern who is not qualified to do so, is a criminal offence.

There are businesses that I know of which take on interns and give appropriate training – and on the other hand, there are businesses which organise their labour needs around a reliance on unpaid interns, they see an opportunity to exploit them. This is where our employment laws need to keep pace with the current trends and adequately protect interns. A dedicated body of people need to be trained to look out for these kids and one of the first steps is to clarify the status of interns and their workplace rights and make sure the wrong doers are penalised.

Some may have heard of a landmark case which came before the Federal Circuit Court where the Melbourne-based media organisation Crocmedia was fined $24,000 for not paying its interns and it was discovered the nature of the work the interns were doing should be paid work. This case highlighted that some Australian companies are exploiting unpaid interns to do work that paid employees would usually do - my problem is the fine was not enough and interns should be even more protected.

Internships in my opinion are very important although people who suffer from a strong sense of entitlement underestimate how necessary work experience is in this job market. The number of young Australians undertaking unpaid internships has steadily increased in recent years. In some industries having this sort of experience on your CV is now seen as an essential requirement to land your first job. All the skills you can muster will certainly  put you in the running for a better job.