You’re fired!

Mansur's Musings

This time last year, I was fired from my dream job in the UK. Or more accurately, my dream internship, the precursor to my dream job. The earth seemed to shatter beneath my feet as the permanent position I’d been working towards for two years turned out to be nothing more than a mirage. One that kept me agreeing to low pay as my temporary contract was extended four times.

Though my internship was in the UK, and therefore subject to different laws and policies than we have locally, the experience I had triggered so many questions about what protections exist, if any, for the sometimes invisible and largely invaluable workforce of interns. If I had had a union would things have been different?

When it comes to internships in Ontario, many employers are unaware of their legal obligations, which are laid out by the Employment Standards Act. When the Ontario government did an inspection blitz focusing on interns back in 2014, it found 23 per cent of inspected employers with internship positions were in violation of the ESA. This could include not paying an intern for what should, under the law, be a paid position.

Interns who do manage to get paid minimum wage are often treated as though they should be grateful for any compensation at all, as if unpaid was the norm when the opposite is true.

In my case, I was paid the UK national minimum wage. But what was supposed to be a three-month contract was extended to six months, then a year, and twice more after that to tide me over until a permanent contract was approved. I was made to believe it was acceptable for me to start my new role without a written job offer, that it was fair because I had no prior industry experience outside of my internship. For six months I worked alongside my colleagues, doing the same work, for less pay.

Some people might blame me for my predicament, and it was suggested a handful of times that I should consider leaving based on this treatment. But any income was better than no income and getting a new job in the economic climate at the time as an immigrant on a temporary visa proved nigh impossible.

Thinking back, what I needed most at that time was negation skills and to better understand my rights. I wish there had been a union to help me understand what my employer was obligated to do for me. Maybe then I would have learned to more forcefully negotiate with the corporate goliath I was facing, which employed more than 80,000 people.

Things happen for a reason and today I can say I’m grateful I was fired and released from the never-ending internship extensions and mistreatment. But that doesn’t mean what I went through was right, and it certainly underscores why unions matter, especially in a large corporate environment.