In a world that has come to celebrate the 99 percent, people are starting to get peeved that unpaid internships still exist. Anyone that has carried out an internship during college knows that they work every bit as hard as full-time employees for about two-hour less a week. Thus Rashida Salaam, a 26 year-old and now graduate of the City College of New York, is bringing a lawsuit against Bad Boys Entertainment, the record label of rapper and entrepreneur Diddy.
Salaam worked for Bad Boy during the first half of 2012, running errands, picking up lunch, booking trips and preparing expense reports. She reports working for nearly 36 hours a week. Sounds like good experience to us, but Salaam reports that she was the only intern there getting such experience. Others "wrapped gifts" and decorated the office for various holidays, receiving no training that would help them get a job in the long run. Combine these two sides of the story, says her attorney, and you've got an invalid internship.
"The primary recipient of the benefits should be the intern," said Jeffry Brown, Salaam's attorney when discussing unpaid internships. "Not the company."
The suit looks to include more than 500 individuals who worked similar internships between 2007 and now (the statute of limitations for unpaid wages is six years). It seeks back wages plus interest for the hours that Salaam and her fellow interns worked. The total amount will be established at trial. Salaam qualified that she did receive a $40 weekly stipend to cover travel costs.
Diddy himself is not mentioned in the suit, as Salaam only saw him around the office on occasion, and he was never responsible for handling her as an employee.
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