Meanwhile in australia:
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Career advice

Are Unpaid Internships Legal in Australia?



by Mark Smith

 almost 6 years ago



Recently, the topic of unpaid internships came up in the people2people office. A few members of our team had undertaken internships without pay to assist with their career development. Curious about the legality of unpaid internships, I thought we should investigate and share our findings on our blog. On initial inspection of job boards, you can quickly discover opportunities labelled as internships, many of which are unclear about pay or specifically state that interns will not be paid. In the modern job market, particularly in certain industries and countries, unpaid internships are becoming increasingly common. But are they legal in Australia? I was able to track down some information from Fair Work Australia. They state:

A work experience arrangement or internship is when a person works for a business to gain experience in a particular occupation or industry.  These arrangements can be a valuable way for prospective employees to make the transition from study to work or explore a new career path. Sometimes these arrangements span several months and can lead to ongoing employment.

An unpaid work experience arrangement or unpaid internship can be lawful if it is a vocational placement  or if there is no employment relationship found to exist. In particular:

the person must not be doing “productive” work

the main benefit of the arrangement should be to the person doing the placement, and

it must be clear that the person is receiving a meaningful learning experience, training or skill development.```