While internships have traditionally been viewed a great way to get a foot in the door for sought-after jobs, a recent court ruling is making many question the practice. New York federal district judge, Kevin Castel, dismissed a case from an unpaid intern claiming sexual harassment against her employer. The court ruled that the intern was not an employee, and was therefore not protected under New York City’s Human Rights Law.
The intern, Lihuan Wang, claimed that her superior, Zhengzhu Liu, sexually harassed her while she was an unpaid intern for television broadcasting company, Phoenix Satellite Television, US. Wang was a graduate student at Syracuse University in 2009 when she worked for the company’s New York bureau. She claimed that the Washington D.C. bureau chief, Zhengzhu Liu, lured her to his hotel room to discuss her job performance and possible full-time placement. Wang claimed that Liu wrapped his arms around her, squeezed her rear end, and tried to kiss her. She said the company’s interest in permanently hiring her ended when she stopped his advances and left the hotel.
While this kind of advance would normally fall under a violation of New York’s Human Rights Law, the judge ruled that Wang’s case could not be filed as sexual harassment because she was not an official employee since she was unpaid.
This decision comes on the heels of the much publicized interns versus Conde’ Nast and Hearst lawsuits where interns are suing to be paid for their work. But, while it seems interns are making some headway in the payment for work efforts, no such progress is apparent for unpaid interns to win sexual harassment claims. So far, Oregon is the only state where the law has been expanded to include interns as protected workers under harassment laws.
If you are considering working as an unpaid intern, it makes sense to thoroughly review the company’s policy toward interns. Make sure that your firm includes unpaid interns as employees before agreeing to work for free. If you are an intern, and feel you have a sexual harassment claim against your employer, contact our esteemed employment lawyers at Castronovo & McKinney for a free consultation to discuss your case.