【卫报 20111122】慈善团体不应通过无偿工作来压榨年轻人

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【原文地址】http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/joepublic/2011/nov/22/charities-exploit-young-people-unpaid-work

Charities should not exploit young people through unpaid work

Supermarkets may be using unpaid jobseekers to stack shelves, but charities shouldn't lose the moral high ground by doing the same, says Brendan Martin

Charities shouldn't follow the example of supermarkets by using unpaid interns Photograph: Laurence Dutton/Getty Images

War on Want recently advertised a part-time temporary vacancy at its London headquarters. Candidates required a "relevant degree or equivalent experience", "excellent writing and editing skills", "excellent computer skills", "sound understanding of international development issues" and "financial management skills". Overseas experience and knowledge of Africa were desirable.

Yet it paid only a lunch allowance and local fares, worth about a quarter of the national minimum wage. The charity wanted a "volunteer", although the ad appeared on its website's jobs page and described the position as an internship.

War on Want's executive director John Hilary says it used to offer interns the London living wage before deciding that fairness demanded an entry-level salary. "So we started paying them £22k a year – but we had to stop because we couldn't afford it."

Benjamin Ward, head of press and media relations at WWF-UK, defends not paying its interns by saying their feedback is "overwhelmingly positive". Placements provide a "springboard into employment, with us or elsewhere".

Other NGOs say interns have access to staff training and networks and gain stronger CVs and references. But any worker should expect them on top of a wage. And where does it leave those who cannot afford to work for nothing?

Some NGOs, such as the World Development Movement and Forum for the Future, offer part-time unpaid internships, so that the interns can earn money the rest of the time or claim jobseeker's allowance (JSA).

But when young people who refuse to fill supermarket shelves for free risk having their benefits docked, shouldn't organisations that aspire to higher ethical standards resist the normalisation of unpaid labour, especially at a time of record youth unemployment?

The Young Foundation's intern co-ordinator Gemma Callandar says: "If we had to pay interns there would be a lot less of them. Therefore fewer would gain access to work experience." Perhaps, but many NGOs have also come to rely on an endless supply of graduates wearily resigned to the new reality.

Others choose differently. The Work Foundation pays the London living wage, while Oxford-based People and Planet offers up to 10 full-time internships each year on the Oxford living wage.

Voluntary commitment is the lifeblood of charities, and it does not – nor should it – confer employment rights. But courts can decide that a "volunteer" or an "intern" is really an "employee".

"People are attaching a label they think gives them impunity, but it doesn't," says Paul Jennings, solicitor at charity law firm Bates Wells and Braithwaite. Media unions have already won backdated minimum wage claims for people who had agreed to work as unpaid interns.

Charities do not intend to exploit, but they cannot afford an ethically unsustainable position on an increasingly touchstone issue. Good employers should be able to find better ways to reconcile budgetary constraints than by getting vulnerable young people to work for nothing.

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http://bbs.m4.cn/forum.php?mod=v ... p;extra=#pid5200880，翻译完毕。