Ban unpaid internships. Now!

In June last year we won the vote in the European Parliament to ban unpaid internships.

Finally - after 8 months - the European Commission is proposing legislation to ensure a fair income for interns and trainees. But guess what? There is no proposal to ban unpaid internships. How is this possible? Why do you still allow young people to be exploited by working for free?

If you work, you get paid.

Sign our petition and let the European Commission know that the era of working for experience is over.

What is the problem?

Increasingly we see that young people are expected to work for free to get enough work experience before they are eligible for an entry-level job. And with the normalisation of this practice, employers are becoming more and more dependent on this type of free labour.

Meanwhile, young people are exploited by working for free, without getting any remuneration for their labour, which denies their value and ambitions.

Unpaid internships are fundamentally unjust as they deny the equal opportunity to acquire work experience across all sectors. Their lack of security leads to financial stress with many interns forced either to find a second job, or to accept mounting debts, in the face of society’s increasing housing costs. Interns from a wealthy background avoid this and so are granted another unfair advantage in the labour market.

Young people who do not have the privilege of financial security, parental support or cheap housing cannot take up unpaid internships, making it even harder to begin their working life.

Education can help create equality, but if the first step after your degree is an unpaid internship, we maintain existing inequalities in our society. The COVID pandemic has already forced young people to put their lives on hold. The least we can do is to ensure young people start their lives in the labour market not already in debt.

It’s time to put an end to this. Sign this petition to demand a legal framework to ban unpaid internships, traineeships and apprenticeships in order to end exploitative practises for young professionals.

Kim van Sparrentak (NL)
Alviina Alametsä (FI)
Ciarán Cuffe (IE)
Rosa D'Amato (IT)
Sara Matthieu (BE)
Tilly Metz (LU)
Niklas Nienaß (DE)
Kira Peter-Hansen (DK)
Diana Riba i Giner (ES)
Mounir Satouri (FR)
Sylwia Spurek (PL)
Monika Vana (AT)
Greens/EFA Members of the European Parliament

in cooperation with

Federation of Young European Greens - FYEG
DWARS - GroenLinks youth organisation

📸Visual: Fair Internship Initiative