Nine hours a day, Monday through Friday, but without salary. This is the type of work carried out in Spain by scholarship holders such as Marta, a student of the Higher Degree in Makeup and Characterization, who prefers to use a false name to avoid being recognized.
“On shooting days, I spent between 12-14 hours workingbut you get used to not getting paid until you don’t have a name in this world”, he admits.
Thousands of students in Spain carry out non-work internships every year which, by offering training in the trade, they do not provide any financial remuneration.
Training practices are mandatory for most students, especially in Health Sciences (85.6% of students), according to data from the National Institute of Statistics.
Rocío studied Nursing and has been taking them “since the second year of her degree, although in the first year you go to the hospital for a week”. She tells EFE that the work is “increasing in time and complexity, and they never pay you.”
“I think it is very normalized that they do not pay you, especially in the health sector”explains this qualified professional.
In addition to the lack of financial compensation, transportation costs, subsistence allowances and, in the case of university students, the price of registration.
For Héctor, a student of International Relations and Protocol, the internships were compulsory and “it is the subject, in fact, for which you pay the most.”
"free labor"
Not all internships are unpaid, but most are. Not considered an employment relationshipthe law does not oblige you to contribute a salary, although study aid may be offered.
But the latter is not common, as reflected in a study by the General Union of Workers (UGT), which calculates that in 2018 there were 866,079 interns in Spain, of which 759,692 (87.7%) did not receive any economic remuneration.
Of the 106,387 fellows who did receive it, the range was between 300 and 500 euros ($325-540) for jobs ranging from six hours a day to full-time. However, it is an approximate calculation, as there is no official record of internship students.
“Only those registered with Social Security are known”explains Eduardo Magaldi, spokesman for RUGE-UGT, the youth branch of the union, “because companies that do not offer remuneration are not required to register their interns.”
The union calculates that the public administration lost more than one billion euros in contributions in 2018 due to training contracts without financial compensation.
“All non-labour practices must be paid”, claims the union representative: “those that are included within a study plan they are necessary and useful, what must be done is to regulate them to provide them with a greater number of guarantees, including remuneration”.
The Student Union is also against unpaid internships, its spokesperson Coral Latorre told Efe.
“Internships cannot become a source of free labor for companies, which also make a great business taking advantage of this situation”, and "many times with more hours than we are entitled to”points out this person in charge of that student organization.
For its part, before giving its version, the main Spanish employers’ association, CEOE, prefers to wait to know the Government’s proposals to regulate this issue, according to sources from the business organization consulted by EFE.
Towards a fellowship status
This past Friday began the meetings between the Ministry of Labor, unions and employers to start defining the first Scholarship Statute in Spain, one of the commitments included in the recent labor reform.
The Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, has indicated that this regulation would be the first in Spain to grant “a catalog of rights" to the fellows.
The statute aims to avoid its precariousness and put an end to “the possible abuses in hiring under the formula of false interns”which actually cover structural jobs.
According to Magaldi, “Spain is in the best position to be the first country, once again, to legislate or adapt its regulations to something as important as the regulation of non-labour practices”.
The Internship Statute could be the first step to put an end to unpaid internships, described by the European Parliament as “a form of exploitation of young workers and a violation of their rights”.