YOURSAY | 'HR Ministry should have proper guidelines, policies on interns'

'Interns not free labour' - student dons signboard to fight exploitation

Uncle Yap: I totally agree that we should stop exploiting interns and apprentices. In the UK, they used to make apprentices pay for tutelage; but things there have changed drastically for the better.

In the '70s, I was articled as a clerk with a Chartered Accountancy firm in Birmingham and they paid me a decent salary that allowed me to rent a house and have a normal life without having to ask my parents for money.

Of course, my work was of value and my time was charged to the clients. Each time, I passed a part of the professional examinations, my salary was increased, together with my charge-out rate.

Interns in Malaysia must be doing something useful and of value; so why aren't they suitably compensated? Enlightened members of professional bodies must press for the end of modern-day slavery.

Mazilamani: Doesn't the Human Resources Ministry have a role to play in the matter, if the complaints and concerns expressed by interns are long going?

The Human Resources Ministry, by right, should have come up with proper guidelines and policies for employers who accept or accommodate interns, wishing to learn and work equally responsibly as permanent staff. Why has this been neglected by the ministry for so long?

The demands of the interns are perfectly justifiable and need to be addressed.

On the other hand, interns must understand that they cannot and should not expect high remuneration. Be grateful for the on-the-job training opportunity.

RedHare6047: For those arguing against public university student Rashifa Aljunied, you do know that RM500 per intern isn't even that much right? Was that not the standard rate previously?

Yes, it's allowance. Is it enough? Probably not. But again, if you say, asking for RM500 is too much and interns should do free labour, that sounds like a totally different issue and more for the employer than anything else.

It may be true that it ultimately falls on the intern to accept or reject the internship course. Just food for thought, why is it so tough to spare RM500 per intern? Under current economic circumstances, that's nothing much at all.

Nagadragons: Rashifa is right in demanding that interns be treated fairly by getting paid. It is indeed a sad day that a student has to request for internship allowance.

It’s their right as they are providing useful service to the organisation. Not only must the government support this, but it is also most important that the Malaysian Employers Federation and Malaysian Trade Union Congress support this proposal.

No use going to International Conferences such as the International Labour Organisation meetings but not being able to provide a stipend for our interns.

GreenBear: Multinational companies are lining up at local universities and paying good money to hire top students as interns.

They need a constant stream of talents to stay afloat, and interns who can be absorbed as permanent staff are a vital source of manpower.

But if you’re a sub-standard student, your only options are sub-standard companies.

All those companies that don’t pay interns, don’t expect much from them. They’re poorly run, have poor corporate governance, and probably breaking a few labour rules already.

I know someone who works for a company that makes their employees pay them for being 10 minutes “late” and also forces their employees to take leave.

The truth is most Malaysian companies are substandard.

Tc: Internship is part of corporate responsibility. Many employers exploit interns by asking them to do no-value jobs like filing, running errands, jobs which they gladly pass to interns. They expect free labour from these interns.

This is outright bullying. It is not, as some comments say, that these interns should be grateful for such exploitations.

If employers are reluctant to help to mould talent at a small price, the government should introduce a compulsory internship fund to replace the Human Resources Training Fund.

Headhunter: If an intern can be productive to an organisation where he or she is attached, rightly they should be paid according to their contribution.

But if interns are there just to gain some insight into how an organisation works and are not contributing anything in return, do they need to be paid?

From experience, an internship can be disruptive to an organisation where the normal workflow is disturbed when staff are requested to spend considerable time giving them training and guiding them.

There are cases where they ask for information that is considered confidential in nature to the company.

Some corporations take it as their contribution towards mentoring duty rather than anything else.

Another fact is that not all internships are at all useful to the student especially if it is not relevant to his course. In fact, I dare say that 90 percent are not relevant and a waste of time.

Goldie12345: There are two sides to this story. In some instances, employers are good and want to help the next generation, pay a good allowance, and share their knowledge and skills.

Then you have employers who exploit the interns, making them work long arduous hours with all sorts of tasks which the intern is not equipped to handle.

You also have interns who are enthusiastic, happy to get the opportunity, willing to learn and put in the effort in spite of the poor pay because they value the knowledge they are gaining and how it will look on their CV for future jobs. They may even gain a good reference.

On the other hand, you have interns who are entitled, lazy and have no enthusiasm nor initiative to learn from others but expect everything to be handed to them with little effort on their part.

It is a matter of demand equals supply and for many interns, an opportunity to get their foot through the door or a potential full-time employer. Short-term pain for long-term gain.

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