News and Announcements

fashionista.com—Tyler McCall In the midst of Diana Wang’s ongoing lawsuit against Hearst for unpaid intern wages, comes news of another media intern lawsuit–this time against Conde Nast. Two former interns filed suit against Conde Nast on Thursday, alleging that the company failed to pay them minimum wage, the New York Times is reporting. Plaintiffs Lauren Ballinger, who interned at W Magazine, and Matthew Leib, who worked for the The New Yorker, are asking to move forward with a class-action lawsuit. What makes them slightly different from Wang is that each were paid–Ballinger a paltry $12...

courthousenews.com—Nick Divito Two unpaid interns on the film "Black Swan" were actually Fox Searchlight employees, and a third intern can represent a class, a federal judge ruled. Eric Glatt and Alexander Footman sued Searchlight and its parent company, Fox Entertainment Group, in October 2011 under the Fair Labor Standards Act and New York Labor Law. * * * Antalik will get to represent a class alleging violation of New York Labor Law, U.S. District Judge William Pauley III ruled Tuesday. The judge also conditionally certified a collective action on Antalik's claims under the federal labor...

WNYC—The Takeaway with John Hockenberry A federal court in New York has ruled that a group of interns at Fox Searchlight Pictures should have been paid for their work on the movie Black Swan. The decision may have broad implications for students looking for their first job. Eric Glatt filed the federal lawsuit against Fox. He says everyone always told him taking an unpaid internship was the way to get his foot in the door in the film industry. At Fox, he worked as an unpaid accounting clerk, he says — filing, getting signatures, running checks and handling petty cash — but he was working for...

washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog—Dylan Matthews Unpaid internships* are increasingly a fact of life for college students. The National Association of Colleges and Employers found that 55 percent of the class of 2012 had an internship or co-op during their time in college. Almost half of those — 47 percent — were unpaid. A third of internships at for-profit companies were unpaid. Depending on how you look at it, this is either massive exploitation of young people by powerful corporations which worsens inequality, or a valuable opportunity for on-the-job training at lower cost than a degree or...