This presentation contains: - The internship definition, German and America law, problematic points, case studies from across the world, stats, and solutions. - Berlin startups' business model visualisation and the analysis. - A lot of visual material such as: infographics, research data, comics, photo and video.

1. Know your rights!
Internship culture
in Berlin
Presentation by: Katja Petrova
E-mail: petrova84@gmail.com

3. Definition
In the beginning of the 20th Century an internship used to refer only to
medical students, who did paid internships, even though it was a truly
unpleasant job.
In the end of the 20th Century an internship became a short educational
program (1-2 months) during the studies, where a student was meant to
shadow the workers in order to watch and learn the company’s business flow.
Such interns had a mentor to navigate them around.
In the 21st Century many internships turned into a new form of young labor
exploitation, because many employers understood that this is a good way to
save money. This new discipline meant that the interns are mostly graduates
with good technical skills and understanding of the full time working structure.
Video on unpaid interns
Video “Enough is enough”
Video “Generation strike”

4. American Law
1. The internship, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of
the employer, is similar to training which would be given in an educational
environment.
2. The internship experience is for the benefit of the intern.
3. The intern does not displace regular employees, but works under close
supervision of existing staff.
4. The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from
the activities of the intern; and on occasion its operations may actually be
impeded.
5. The intern is not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the
internship.
6. The employer and the intern understand that the intern is not entitled to
wages for the time spent in the internship.

5. German Law
Urteile
Das Arbeitsgericht Berlin ( Datum: 08.01.2003, Az. Az: 36 Ca 19390/02 ) hat zur
immer öfter festzustellenden Ausnutzung der Arbeitsmarktsituation seitens der
Arbeitgeber durch Abschluss sog. "Praktikumverträge" Stellung genommen.
Danach liegt ein Arbeitsverhältnis und kein Praktikum vor, wenn nicht der Erwerb
praktischer Kenntnisse und Erfahrungen, sondern die Erbringung von
Arbeitsleistung im Vordergrund steht. (http://www.fairwork-ev.de/praktikanten)
Small companies, with 10 or less employees, do not fall under this law.

6. Download PDF

7. Where exactly is the problem?
1. Internships became longer (from 3 up to 18 months)
2. Mostly full time (no flexible hours)
3. Remain being un(der)paid
4. Non-educational but employee-replacing (and this is illegal!)
5. Exclude those from poor families (postpone their careers)
6. Internships which don’t exploit or teach, ask to make a coffee
7. Stop graduates from paying back their tuition fees
8. It’s not enough with just one internship
9. Un(der)paid interns aren’t protected by health and safety laws.
10. Their intellectual property goes to the employer.
11. Unpaid interns don’t receive a pension scheme.

8. Sarah Kendzior:
Resource: http://aje.me/1hiuqIP
“Survival is not only a matter of money, it is a matter
of mentality - of not mistaking bad luck for bad
character, of not mistaking lost opportunities for
opportunities that were never really there.”

9. Financial survival
“Unemployed college graduates are told that their predicament is their own
fault. They should have chosen a more "practical" major, like science or
engineering, and stayed away from the fickle and loathsome humanities.
The reality is that, in the "jobless recovery", nearly every sector of the
economy has been decimated. Companies have turned permanent jobs
into contingency labour, and entry-level positions into unpaid internships.
Changing your major will not change a broken economy.” (Sarah Kendzior)

10. Alexander Augustus & The Bite Back Movement – http://www.thebitebackmovement.com

11. Full infographic: https://medium.com/the-nib/6050f2c25497

12. “Does experience pay your car insurance?
Does experience pay your grocery bill?
Unfortunately, no. Money pays the bills.” Trent M Kays

13. According to the 2011 European Parliament
Committee on Petitions, in France and Germany
alone an estimated 1.5 million people undertake
an internship each year. A European Youth
Forum Survey found that around half of Europe’s
internships are unpaid, and 45 percent do not
pay enough to support day-to-day living.
New York Times

15. Psychological survival
Sleepless nights.
Am I good enough yet?
How much more experience do I need?

16. This causes self-esteem drop.

17. College/university pressure

19. Shocking case studies and facts
1. Black Swan scandal
2. The death of 21-year-old German intern Moritz
Erhardt, after working 72h straight in the Bank of
America
3. Condé Nast, a division of Advance Publication,
which prints include Vogue, GQ, Wired to
mention a few, has stopped internship programs,
after two former interns for W and the New
Yorker sued Condé Nast for paying them less
than a dollar an hour.
4. The British Film Institute has been accused of
using unpaid interns to fill the gap after it axed
nearly a fifth of its workforce

20. 5. In London over 50% of employers say they wouldn't give a job to a graduate
with no experience, revealed a 2013 report.
6. For one former unpaid broadcasting intern at Phoenix Satellite Television
U.S., that means not being able to bring a sexual harassment claim against her
former supervisor, according to a Bloomberg BNA report.
7. It’s a deadlock. With not enough junior positions around, one usually is
required to have 5 to 10 years of experience; does that mean 5 years of interning?
For example, AirBnB is looking for a PR manager and requires to have BA and 6-10 years of experience.)
8. Some companies have gone too far, that they started offering internships for
security guards and translators!
9. The Unite union has claimed that at least 15 of Britain’s biggest charities are
illegally signing up unpaid interns.
•For more media reports check Berlin Internship Justice Facebook Page

22. There are still employers who
do not know what the internship
meant to be.

23. Germany
Mobilzeit.de „Generation Y under pressure“
Erstens: Wer heute studiert, ist einem Lebenslaufdruck ausgesetzt wie keine
Generation zuvor. Jahrelang trichterten Dozenten und Personalchefs den
Studenten ein: Deutsche Absolventen sind zu alt, ihnen muss das
Bummelstudium ausgetrieben werden. Sie sollen mit Bestnote abschneiden,
Erfahrung im Ausland sammeln, eine zweite, besser eine dritte Fremdsprache
beherrschen, Praktika absolvieren und sich nebenbei noch ehrenamtlich
engagieren, denn das stärkt schließlich die Persönlichkeit. Kurz: Für einen
Durchschnittsstudenten ist in der Arbeitswelt von heute kein Platz mehr.

24. „Meine Generation hat viele Namen: Generation Praktikum. Generation
Burnout. Generation Altersarmut.
Manche sagen, meine Generation sei doch selbst schuld und nur zu egoistisch und
auf sich bezogen. Dass mit der Rente könnte man doch ganz leicht lösen, durch
höhere Geburtenraten. Aber wann sollen wir denn bitte sehr Kinder bekommen?
Während des Studiums mit Bachelor-Master-System vielleicht? Mit
Anwesenheitspflicht, Regelstudienzeitdiktat und Studienkredit? Während des
unbezahlten Praktikums? Vielleicht beim niedrig bezahlten Volontariat oder
Ausbildung ohne Übernahmeaussicht mit Überstunden-Garantie? Oder
zwischen zwei jobbedingten Umzügen weil wir ja so unglaublich flexibel und mobil
für den Arbeitsmarkt sind? Wer zahlt uns den Karriereknick durch Kinderzeit? Was
ist wenn man am Ende Alleinerziehend ist?“
http://kattascha.de/
•Little or NO money, NO career
prospects - BUT happy: This is the
conclusion of the internship report
in 2012 by "meinpraktikum.de”•

25. Meinpraktikum.de Report 2012
Only 1 in 5 interns get a full time offer

26. 8 STUNDED SIND Üblich, aber länger arbeiten alleine IST KEIN GRUND zum
FRUST.
Die durchschnittliche Arbeitszeit für Praktikanten liegt – den Bewertungen auf
meinpraktikum.de zufolge – bei ca. 8 Stunden und somit im zu erwartenden
Bereich. Über 50 % der Praktikanten absolvieren einen normalen 8-stündigen und
nur ca. 15 % einen längeren Arbeitstag. Knapp 10 % der Befragten arbeiten sogar
weniger als 7 Stunden täglich.
More statistics in German:
http://www.meinpraktikum.de/downloads/Praktikantenreport.pdf
“But the flipside of Germany's high employment rate is low-paid and
unstable jobs.” (EU Observer)
And the biggest problem is that there is no minimum wage.
A company gets “Fair Company” label only if it pays an intern at least €670/m,
says cicero.de
SPD and CSU insist on a minimum wage for all graduates, who are taking
internships. Full article in German:
http://www.spd.de/aktuelles/111188/20131030_koaverhdl_arbeit_soziales.html

27. Silicon Berlin
Underpaid Berlin interns are meant to boost the startups’ business.
Unmotivated and tired one day they just give up.
Collage by Katja Avant-Hard

28. Audio Recording from the article
The Danger of offering unpaid
internships in a startup

30. Not only big profit companies should pay, but also
startups. All for-profit companies should pay.
“There is no excuse, can’t pay don’t hire. This is a wrong business model,
and you’re an amateur at best” – fighters for the intern rights.
POOR, BUT SEXY.
Photo: Patrick Conley, Berlin

31. In Berlin, 2010 the DGB youth has collected 60,000
signs for the petition against unfair internships, which
do not educate, but exploit. They demanded the
protection for interns.
Full Article:
http://www.sueddeutsche.de/karriere/generation-praktikum-bundestagdebattiert-ueber-praktika-1.561237
When Die Zeit published the article “Generation Praktikum” in 2005, a
scandal erupted. – ExBerliner.
“81% of interns polled felt they had done the work of a regular employee,”
says René Rudolf, the head of the DGB’s youth division, adding that he thinks
this is now the established standard: “Too often, regular work is done by evernew interns. In many sectors, regular positions have disappeared and are filled
by interns instead.”
"Anyone who feels exploited as an intern, should seek legal advice” –
says Johanna Bruckner.
Earlier this year Mark Schenk wrote a non-application to Fair Wages
Worldwide NGO oranisation saying that he cannot afford to work for €1,50/h.

32. “There is no way the Berlinale could subsist
without interns – they make up a third of staff!”
thinks Melitta, a cultural studies student who did a
three-month internship in event management at the
Berlinale Film Festiva.

33. Technische Universität Berlin. Rund 25.000 Studenten werden hier ausgebildet. Im
Fachbereich Architektur machen allein dieses Jahr über 100 Studenten ihren
Abschluss. Das Problem: Für die Architekten von morgen gibt es keine Stellen –
unbezahlte Praktika dagegen reichlich.
Student (2006): „Das ist für mich eine Ausbeutung. Eine ganz klare Ausbeutung von
jungen, energischen, hoch qualifizierten Arbeitskräften, Studenten in diesem Fall, die
Aufgabenbereiche übernehmen, die eigentlich einem gar nicht zustehen.“
(rbb-online.de)
„It‘s important to improve the situation for interns“ –
says SPD

34. "If the internship is really bad,
walk away”
Fred Searle
Video on How to Walk Away

35. Solutions
1. Know your rights, read the contract
carefully
2. Rate your internship at
meinpraktikum.de and
internsgopro.com
3. Univerisities and colleges must
provide a clear explanation on what
is internship
4. Ban un(der)paid internship offers like
Monster UK and Total Jobs did. Or
like some London universities would
refuse to advertise unpaid
internships.
5. Fight! Speak out! Don’t be an
internsheep!
6. Employer, avoid being sued by your
interns by simply knowing the law
and what the internship has to be!

36. Useful links:
Germany
1.
2.
3.
4.
http://www.fairwork-ev.de/
http://faircompany.karriere.de/
http://www.meinpraktikum.de/
http://jugend.dgb.de/studium/beratung/students-at-work
The rest of the World
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
https://www.facebook.com/interns.x.free.labor
www.internassociation.ca
internlaborrights.com
https://www.facebook.com/InternBlackList
https://www.facebook.com/PlattformGenerationPraktikum
hagueinternsassociation.org
http://internsgopro.com/
http://internshit.com/

37. Berlin Internship Justice
Katja Petrova: petrova84@gmail.com
@waxmagenta