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| Unpaid intern illustration |
A judge has blocked a lawsuit by a group of unpaid interns that sought to force their former employers to pay them at least minimum wage, according to a statement released by a court in New York.
The group of unpaid interns, sued for back wages, but a New York judge has dismissed the lawsuit against Hearst Corp., saying it does not meet the definition of a class action lawsuit. “If you want to sue, you must do so as individuals,” the judge ruled
The rejection comes at a time when tens of thousands of college students are looking for summer internships, many of them without pay.
New York attorney Maurice Pianko, who represents a group of unpaid interns said that the ruling is a blow to college students seeking to enter the job market.
“I do think that interns deserve some type of pay. I thought we outlawed slavery in the United States a long time ago. Using young students for free is a form of slavery in my opinion,” Alice Rose, 29, of New York City told YourJewishNews.com after learning about the judge’s rejection of the class action lawsuit.
"This is not good news," Attorney Pianko said. "If you can’t make a class action, then very few will sue, and very few lawyers will take the case," he added.
Pianko said that although many lawyers could find economically attractive a class action lawsuit because aggregate wages represent a lot of money, individual cases are worth at most a few thousand dollars each to a lawyer, just enough to pay for the filing fees.