Fox Searchlight Class Action News
A Nation of Illegal Interns
Thursday, 20 December 2012
Written by Eric Glatt, 11 Sep 2012, published in: CityWords It's time we ditched the term "internship." The word's greatest value to employers resides in its vagueness. Take, for example, the production of the film Black Swan, for which I worked as an accounting clerk and a post-production assistant, but for which I was not paid wages. Why not? Because I, like scores of other workers on that film, was a relative newcomer to the industry. And being a newcomer to the film industry often means doing unpaid work, an illegal arrangement camouflaged behind the term "internship" — a term…
Fox's Entire Internship Program Now Under Legal Attack (Exclusive)
Thursday, 20 December 2012
5:11 PM PDT 8/13/2012 by Eriq Gardner, Hollywood Reporter: Lawyers want to expand the scope of a lawsuit originally brought by interns who had worked on "Black Swan." A class-action lawsuit that takes issue with internships at Fox Entertainment is becoming a lot bigger. Last fall, two interns who worked on Black Swan sued Fox Searchlight, claiming that the company's unpaid internship program violated minimum wage and overtime laws. The plaintiffs now are seeking the opportunity to file an amended lawsuit that will "broaden the scope of the case to include all interns who participated in Fox Entertainment Group's internship…
'Black Swan' Intern Lawsuit Proceeds, Striking Blow Against Unpaid Labor In Film
Thursday, 20 December 2012
Posted: 08/24/2012 4:39 pm Updated: 08/30/2012 9:02 pm —By Joe Satran, Huffington Post: Former "Black Swan" interns Eric Glatt and Alexander Footman won a small skirmish in their court battle with Fox Searchlight this morning when Judge William H. Pauley III allowed them to file a motion to amend their suit to expand the plaintiff class to include everyone who has worked as an unpaid intern at Fox Entertainment Group for the past several years. Elizabeth Wagoner, an attorney with Outten and Golden, the firm representing the plaintiffs, told The Huffington Post that Pauley set the deadline for the motion…
Unpaid Interns: Real World Work Or Just Free Labor?
Sunday, 19 February 2012
Source - NPR: Click here to listen to audio
Unpaid Interns Sue 'Black Swan' Production Company
Friday, 30 September 2011
Source - The Take Away: Click here to listen to audio
'Black Swan' Unpaid Interns File Lawsuit Against Fox Searchlight
Thursday, 29 September 2011
by Christina Ng - abcnews.go.com: Two men who interned for the film "Black Swan" have filed a class-action lawsuit against Fox Searchlight on behalf of hundreds of unpaid interns, taking aim at a long-accepted practice in the entertainment industry.The lawsuit alleges that the film production company violated federal and state labor laws by using unpaid interns."This is a widespread practice and most of the time it's unlawful," said Elizabeth Wagoner, one of the attorneys representing the interns. "I haven't seen other suits like this, at least not on this scale. I hope their example will make others feel they…
Unpaid interns strike back by suing Fox
Thursday, 29 September 2011
by Marisa Taylor - bottomline.msnbc.msn.com: While unpaid internships are obligatory for many college students hoping to spruce up their resumes and get a leg up on job prospects, a stagnant labor market has meant that many college graduates are accepting those unpaid internships in lieu of entry level jobs, with the hopes that they’ll lead to paid work. And college graduates desperate for work may not want to ruffle feathers when their employers wade in murky legal waters by asking them to do the work of regular employees under the guise of an unpaid internship. But that’s not…
Interns File Suit Against ‘Black Swan’ Producer
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
by Steven Greenhouse - NY Times: A former intern at Harper's Bazaar is suing the magazine's publisher, Hearst Corporation, saying that her internship violates labor laws because it was unpaid, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court in New York on Wednesday. Xuedan Wang, 28, was an intern at the magazine's accessories department from August to December last year, where she typically worked at least 40 hours a week, and sometimes as much as 55 hours, without pay, according to her lawsuit."Unpaid interns are becoming the modern-day equivalent of entry-level employees, except that employers are not paying them for…