Employers 'exploit' interns at work - graduate jobs

One in three interns are not being paid, with bosses forcing some into menial tasks such as running errands or booking holidays for them, a new report has revealed.

The TUC said a third of the 6,000 interns recruited by employers under the Government's Graduate Talent Pool scheme are currently working unpaid.

A graduate told the union she had to organise her boss's holidays, buy him food and even spend one evening making juice for a company cocktail party.

The TUC said that many employers are exploiting graduates who are desperate to find work in the current economic climate and warned that unpaid internships are illegal.

Meanwhile, the National Union of Journalists has revealed that more than three quarters of its members undertaking work experience, and who have seen their work published, are not paid and the broadcast union Bectu said that work without fee is "rife" in film and TV.

TUC's General Secretary Brendan Barber said: "Whether they are unscrupulous or genuinely unaware of the rules, too many employers are ripping off talented young people by employing them in unpaid internships that are not only unfair but, in most cases, probably illegal.

"It is vital that we crack down on those internships that offer little but hard graft for no reward."