Warner Music Group is but one of many music companies that has been brought under fire for the legality of its internship programs, and now it's become the largest of such to come to a settlement with the parties bringing suit.
The plaintiffs was brought by two former interns under Warner Brothers: Kyle Grant, who had worked unpaid for Warner Brothers Records during 2012-'13, and Justin Henry, who interned for the Atlantic Recording Corporation (a Warner holding) during 2007-'08. Ultimately the pair received approval during 2014 to bring a class action lawsuit representing more than 3,000 previous interns who worked under the parent company.
The settlement that was reached will cover the class, according to Billboard. The amount of money that will be involved in the payout hasn't been disclosed yet, but will be declared during early March most likely. For now all we can do is compare them to other settlements in other cases (whole considering of course that no lawsuit settled thus far has been on the same scale as Warner Brothers). According to The Hollywood Reporter, a collection of 150 interns from the Elite Model Management company gave out somewhere between $700 and $1,750 per plaintiff, based on workload. Meanwhile other non-music companies including NBC and Viacom.
The trend in unpaid internships resulting in lawsuits has gotten especially hectic during the last week, as January 26 saw two more big legal actions taken against major players: One intern is looking to bring a potential class action suit against Wenner Media, the operator of Rolling Stone and Us Weekly. Another suit was filed on the same day against the CBC Corporation and CBS Radio in particular.
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