Is this even legal? Internship

NeonNinja

NeonNinja

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Information Technology Internship 2013
An innovative Software Development company - Khanyisa Real Systems - based in Rondebosch, Cape Town is offering an internship programme for 2014.

Be in possession of a Matric Qualification and a completed IT related Degree / National / Diploma / Certificate from a recognized South African Institute with an above-average academic record.
Have programming experience in C# or Java.

Remuneration: R1500

http://tinyurl.com/mugerqy
 
well it is an internships...
I have also read somewhere they offer on the job training.
 
Internships are very often unpaid. Some pay small amounts like this intended to cover your travel costs / lunch.
 
All the companies I've worked for pay approx. 80% of a new graduate's salary. What's really bizarre is that they want completed tertiary education. WTF?
 
While everyone might think this is "normal" to go unpaid/super low wage for an internship, in the USA this is slowly changing, just recently i read this article.

http://www.bu.edu/today/2013/unpaid-internships-and-the-law/

06.21.2013

The days of unpaid interns doing anything from getting coffee to writing for the company’s blog may be numbered. Three recent lawsuits filed by former interns target employers who allegedly benefited from free labor while providing few learning opportunities.

These included a case decided last week by a federal district court judge in Manhattan, who found that Fox Searchlight Pictures violated minimum wage as well as overtime laws when it failed to pay production interns on the Oscar-winning film Black Swan. In similar cases, two former Conde Nast interns sued the magazine publisher, charging that they were not paid minimum wage when working for The New Yorker and W Magazine, and a former intern working for Warner Music Group and Atlantic Records brought a class-action lawsuit against the companies because he worked for no pay.

..
Michael Harper, a School of Law professor of law and the school’s Barreca Labor Relations Scholar, cites the six US Department of Labor requirements that determine whether or not an internship can be unpaid, starting with evidence that unpaid interns get more from the company than the company gets from them. Many employers attract unpaid interns by promising to work with students so they can receive academic credit for an internship.
Click to expand...


So it really depends on what exactly you get for that internship. I think alot of companies are more likely abusing it as cheap labour than actually offering proper training / long term opportunities.


Anyway the USA also have this "test" to determine whether you should be paid or not:

There are some circumstances under which individuals who participate in “for-profit” private sector internships or training programs may do so without compensation. The Supreme Court has held that the term "suffer or permit to work" cannot be interpreted so as to make a person whose work serves only his or her own interest an employee of another who provides aid or instruction. This may apply to interns who receive training for their own educational benefit if the training meets certain criteria. The determination of whether an internship or training program meets this exclusion depends upon all of the facts and circumstances of each such program


The following six criteria must be applied when making this determination:
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; and
6.
The employer and the intern understand that the intern is not entitled to wages for the time spent in the internship.
Click to expand...

So i don't know what we have in "labour rights" friendly SA, but it looks like the USA is somewhat ahead with this .
 
Last edited:
Slab said:
Information Technology Internship 2013
An innovative Software Development company - Khanyisa Real Systems - based in Rondebosch, Cape Town is offering an internship programme for 2014.

Be in possession of a Matric Qualification and a completed IT related Degree / National / Diploma / Certificate from a recognized South African Institute with an above-average academic record.
Have programming experience in C# or Java.


Remuneration: R1500




http://tinyurl.com/mugerqy
Click to expand...

LOL wtf? With a complete degree you dont need to do internships.You simply walk into a job!
 
Batista said:
LOL wtf? With a complete degree you dont need to do internships.You simply walk into a job!
Click to expand...

In the Legal (Lawyer etc) and Accounting (Chartered Accounting etc) areas, it's standard to get your 3-4 year degree and then having to "article" for another few years until you pass additional exams (bar exams / auditor exams). While you're doing that, you get paid peanuts/minimum wage , but once you're done you go from zero to hero in salary.

Obviously in both types of degrees you can decide not to do the whole work-article-exams thing , and then you most likely end up just becoming a standard (lesser paid) accountant/clerk/legal aid.
 
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wikk3d88 said:
This is not always the case
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True,

You basically summed up why internships is so important.

I know many people with degrees struggling to get positions, not to mention experience. Internships is in layman terms your train ticket to possible success.

Should you be able to advance towards a permanent position, the internships will surely pay with climbing the ladder (thus responsibility and salary).
 
I started as an unpaid intern.

Then I got hired at less than market level. Then I got raises over the next 2 years until I was well above market level.

But I would never have got the job unless I had been willing to start for free.
 
scudsucker said:
I started as an unpaid intern.

Then I got hired at less than market level. Then I got raises over the next 2 years until I was well above market level.

But I would never have got the job unless I had been willing to start for free.
Click to expand...

How many people can start for free, not many, I bet?
 
FlatspinZA said:
How many people can start for free, not many, I bet?
Click to expand...

Not many. I tried it for a year. Could barely cover my transport costs to work and back, nevermind a cheap sarmie for lunch.
Some employers (like Government Departments) use interns as stopgaps to keep going and don't bother creating permenant/contract positions that good interns could possibly fit in to.
 
diabolus said:
In the Legal (Lawyer etc) and Accounting (Chartered Accounting etc) areas, it's standard to get your 3-4 year degree and then having to "article" for another few years until you pass additional exams (bar exams / auditor exams). While you're doing that, you get paid peanuts/minimum wage , but once you're done you go from zero to hero in salary.

Obviously in both types of degrees you can decide not to do the whole work-article-exams thing , and then you most likely end up just becoming a standard (lesser paid) accountant/clerk/legal aid.
Click to expand...

Except for it's nothing close to R1500, in fact it's quite possibly close to quadruple that amount and sometimes you can even do it while studying towards your degree or honours. That includes both SAICA and SAIPA clerks.

That's on top of articles actually being part of the path to whatever you going for (CA or Certified Professional Accountant) and having to meet competencies and whatnot.

This looks like a job with the title internship rather than actually being an internship.
 
Why would you need an internship in development?
The term "junior developer" exists for a reason.
 
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