$600 for a reference: UK training provider accused of charging unpaid interns for references

A UK training provider has hit back at claims it charged unpaid interns almost $600 for a job reference, saying the charge was a necessary “administration fee”.

The Guardian reports Civitatis International, which describes itself as a “small not-for-profit society of volunteers” and not a company, previously offered a three-month “junior associates” program for a fee of £1600 ($2970) for young professionals to gain skills in public policy.

While there is a dispute over whether or not the program, which did not offer a qualification or guaranteed job upon completion, is an internship program, allegations have surfaced this week that Civitatis chairman Jan Mortier personally wrote to individuals who had been in the program to inform them a £300 ($556) fee would be levied each time they asked for an employment reference.

The allegations originated from a former participant in the training program, who contacted UK blog GraduateFog.

But in a statement on the Civitatis International website, the organisation said the “person who initiated these allegations … did not pass the Junior Associate Training Course, nor were they ever charged for a reference”.

However, Civitatis did confirm the existence of an “administration fee” to cover the cost of providing employment references to participants in the training program.

“Last year, we decided that an excessive amount of our time and resources, as an organisation or volunteers, was being taken up by referencing so we instituted an administration fee to cover the costs of document retrieval from our archiving company and for our time. We keep a record for employers of those who passed and failed the course, which was closed in 2013.”

Civitatis said attacks by media outlets on “the integrity of those references are completely unfounded and are unfairly damaging to the prospects of the excellent cadre of young leaders who have strived so hard to pass our Junior Associate Training Course and who now, as a direct result of that course, work in high-level organisations around the world”.

Organisations offering unpaid internships or asking interns to pay upfront for work placements have also come under increasing scrutiny in Australia, after reports emerged in August 2014 that a private company called Australian Interns was charging students between $2000 and $5000 for the opportunity to work for free in a range of industries, including hospitality, manufacturing and finance.

TressCox employment, industrial relations and workplace safety solicitor Edmund Burke told SmartCompany while it is not illegal to charge someone for an employment reference in Australia, it is “a pretty unpleasant thing to do”.

“It’s also something any prospective employer would probably like to know when they are reading the reference,” Burke says.

HR Anywhere managing director Martin Nally agrees, telling SmartCompany any unpaid internship is already likely to be “frowned upon by Fair Work in the first place”.

And Nally says unscrupulous business operators attempting to take advantage of vulnerable workers is not only a problem in the UK. “It lives and exists in Melbourne too,” he says.

A spokesperson for the Fair Work Ombudsman told SmartCompany this morning the legality of a work placement will depend on whether the placement is part of an education or training course and if an employment relationship exists between the two parties.

“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,” says the spokesperson.

The spokesperson says the existence of an employment relationship will be assessed based on the nature and purpose of the arrangement, how long the arrangement lasts, how significant the work undertaken is to the business, what the worker’s obligations are, and who benefits from the arrangement.

Burke says there is little in way of a legal framework around the system of Australian employers writing and relying on references. Instead, it is a convention that “relies on trust, integrity and reputation”.

But he says there is scope for further regulation in the future.

“Nobody is going to pay for a bad reference,” he says. “They’ll get what you pay for and that can only be bad news for prospective employers.”

“An inaccurate of falsely positive reference can lead to legal action for misrepresentation. Be too negative and you risk a defamation case.”