Form letter that I email to companies offering unpaid internships.

Form Letter.md

Subject: Unpaid Internships & Fair Work

Hi there,

I'm Ben Taylor, I don't represent anyone or anything, I'm simply a concerned Australian. Our country has long been known as a paradise for the working class. We give fair holidays and fair pay. We're a country that doesn't tip because we know the waitstaff are earning enough to support themselves.

I'm emailing you because your company is offering an unpaid internship. Under Australian law it's illegal to have an employee that works for free. In many cases unpaid internships are illegal.

It's absolutely in your right to offer an internship, you can pay them minimum wage if you like, but not paying is exploitative and discriminatory. Should a young person who is independent be forced to take a second job or live under severe financial stress just to get a chance in an industry? What about those who can't afford to do even that?

You miss out on potentially great employees and they miss out on the opportunity to move in to skilled work.

If McDonalds can get more than the minimum wage in value out of their teenage employees, I'm sure your business can do the same with interns - even while they're training.

For more information please read the resources here:

http://www.fairwork.gov.au/pay/student-placement-and-unpaid-work/pages/student-placements-work-experience-and-internships.aspx

http://www.fairwork.gov.au/resources/fact-sheets/employer-obligations/pages/internships-vocational-placements-and-unpaid-work.aspx#work-experience-internships

You can also talk to the Fair Work Ombudsman on 13 13 94, 8am - 5.30pm Monday to Friday. They'll assist you in coming up with an employment scheme which supports interns financially, helps them to become more skilled and deliver value for your business.

This is just a bit of information that I hope helps you to improve your business practices.

Cheers,

Ben

LICENSE.md

This is free and unencumbered writing released into the public domain.

Anyone is free to copy, modify, publish, use, sell, or distribute this writing, for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial, and by any means.

In jurisdictions that recognize copyright laws, the author or authors of this writing dedicate any and all copyright interest in the writing to the public domain. We make this dedication for the benefit of the public at large and to the detriment of our heirs and successors. We intend this dedication to be an overt act of relinquishment in perpetuity of all present and future rights to this writing under copyright law.

THE WRITING IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE WRITING OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE WRITING.

For more information, please refer to http://unlicense.org

👍

👍

Woo! 👍

👍

Perhaps you can move the "I don't mean to scare you" bit after the "you miss out on potentially great employees"? That way you convince them before you possibly scare them off.

👍

👍

🤘

👍

I would remove the words "I don't mean to scare you" because then you are meaning to scare them (like if you say "No offense" or "I'm not racist, but", the opposite applies).

You're stating facts, not threatening.

👍

👍

+1

👍

If you wanted to make a mini one page site, and have a "Yours sincerely, the united web community of Australia"

… then you might get better coverage and weight behind your campaign?

Just a thought. Otherwise, good stuff.

@mattrobs & mipearson: thanks have removed that bit - you're right, though I did mean it nicely because I didn't want to scare them

@benschwarz: It's on my todolist

👍

👍

👍