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Hollywood Studios Keep Saying Its Employees Must Get Paid, And Now May Be Forced To Pay Its Interns

from the live-up-to-your-promises dept

Last fall, we noted the absolute hypocrisy of the major Hollywood studios, who repeatedly argue that they’re fighting for copyright to make sure “the little guy” on the movie set gets paid. However, as we pointed out, it appeared that they were violating labor laws by not paying their interns. Lots of companies do unpaid internships, and they’re almost always illegal. There are some very specific rules you need to follow to have an internship be legal if it’s unpaid. Most internships, by law, are supposed to be paid — but it appears the Hollywood studios didn’t bother to follow the rules. They just wanted the free labor.

And, now they may have to pay, as an early ruling in the case has gone against Fox Entertainment Group and its Searchlight Pictures subsidiary, meaning a class action lawsuit for all its unpaid interns can move forward. Fox, cheap as always, tried to claim that it wasn’t the employer, but rather the fake company it sets up for each movie was the real employer. If you’re familiar with Hollywood accounting, you know that each movie is set up as its own “company” whose sole purpose is to lose money. That is, the studio — which owns the company — “charges” the company tons of fees for basically nothing, and then the “movie” can be seen as losing money, even as the studio makes a ton, and then the movie never has to pay out residual checks to the silly people who agreed to get a cut of the net. There’s almost never a net.

Of course, since this is effectively a sham company, the judge quickly saw through that claim, and properly noted that Fox is the real employer. Now, as I’ve said before, I think laws against unpaid internships are kind of silly — and if people can willingly come to an agreement where an unpaid internship makes sense, it should be allowed. But, it does seem ridiculously hypocritical for Hollywood to parade up and down the streets of DC insisting that its main focus is to make sure all the people who work on its movies get paid, including releasing propaganda commercials highlighting non-acting movie staff, and then go out of its way to not pay people doing work on films. If Hollywood wants to say that it’s trying to get people who work on its films paid, it might want to start by not trying to screw many of them out of salaries. But that’s what it’s going to do. Fox has announced plans to appeal the decision. Remember that next time the MPAA is on Capitol Hill talking about all the “jobs” it creates.

Filed Under: hollywood, interns, labor laws, paying employees
Companies: fox

For All The Talk From Hollywood About Making Sure People Get Paid, Why Doesn't It Pay Interns?

from the because-it's-never-been-about-getting-anyone-paid-by-studio-bosses dept

We hear the refrain from the entertainment industry all the time, about how they are fighting against modern technology because without it, people don’t get paid, and how unfair is that? The RIAA’s Cary Sherman keeps talking about all those lost jobs (even though his math doesn’t add up), and talking about all the people the movie industry “employs” (exaggerated by an order of magnitude) has become a key part of the MPAA boss Chris Dodd’s stump speech.

So, isn’t it interesting that the entertainment industry may be facing a potentially big class action problem… for not paying interns? Apparently, it’s quite common for entertainment industry heavyweights to take on unpaid interns, usually eager kids hoping to “break into” the business. But, federal law (and the key state laws) are pretty explicit in noting that “free” internships are almost always illegal for for-profit companies.

Now, to be clear, I actually don’t think free internships — entered into willingly — should be illegal (just as I don’t think there’s anything wrong with people volunteering to do stuff for free). But if Hollywood is running around whining about getting more people paid… it seems pretty hypocritical to then not pay people working for you.

Filed Under: class action lawsuit, hollywood, interns, movie industry, paying