By The Editorial Board
Lihuan Wang, a former Syracuse University student, filed a lawsuit in 2013 against Phoenix Satellite Television stemming from an incident of sexual harassment that occurred while she was working as an unpaid intern for the company’s New York office in 2009. Wang was forced to fight off her boss, who invited her to his hotel room while on a business trip, forcibly kissed her and inappropriately grabbed her. She had to do the same on another occasion with her boss in Atlantic City, N.J. As a result of her rejecting her supervisor’s advances, she did not receive an offer of paid employment with the company.
Although this seems like an obvious case of sexual assault, the court ruled against Wang. According to the law, unpaid interns are not actually employees of the company for which they work. This means that they are not protected by laws against sexual assault, discrimination or similar offenses. Sadly, Wang’s case is not the first of its kind. There have been similar suits dating back as early as 1994 with similar rulings. Up until now, few lawmakers have made a meaningful attempt to rectify the situation. Thankfully, two New York City lawmakers want to change this.
City Councilman James Vacca and former City Councilwoman (current Manhattan Borough President) Gale Brewer are trying to pass an amendment to the current civil rights and sexual harassment laws that would extend these vital protections to unpaid interns.The Fordham Ram wholeheartedly supports this legislation and would argue that more rights should be extended to unpaid interns.
Given that many unpaid summer internships are full-time positions, interns should, at a minimum, be given the basic rights of a full-time employee. This means that not only should they be protected against harassment and discrimination, but they should also be compensated for workplace injuries, offered health insurance benefits comparable to what other full-time employees receive and allowed to complain to receive substantial and effective support from the company’s human resources department.
Given that students who have had an unpaid internship are only 1.8 percent more likely than students who did not have any internships to gain employment after graduation, college students have little incentive to take unpaid internships. Nevertheless, unpaid interns are vital to the success of the companies for which they work. They are not copy makers and coffee fetchers; rather, they make meaningful contributions just like any other employee. Thus, they should be treated and protected like any other employee.
Fordham students should support the current proposed amendment and advocate for future legislation that could provide unpaid interns with any of the aforementioned rights of which they are currently deprived. Not only is it in our best interest as college students who either have an unpaid internship or may potentially have one down the road, but it is also our responsibility as recipients of a Catholic Jesuit education to advocate laws that protect the dignity of work and the rights of workers, as dictated by Catholic social teaching.
The Fordham Ram commends the New York City lawmakers who are seeking to protect some of the city’s more vulnerable workers, and we urge the Fordham student body not only to be aware of such beneficial legislation but also to pressure lawmakers to continue to raise the status of unpaid interns in New York City.
