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Conde Nast Allegedly Violates Federal and State, Wage and Hour Laws by Failing to Pay Interns<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n On June 13, 2013, two former interns, Lauren Ballinger and Matthew Leib (Plaintiffs) filed a class action complaint in U.S. Federal Court (S.D.N.Y.) on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated against Conde Nast Publications and Advance Magazine Publishers (Defendants) alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and New York Labor Laws (NYLL) by failing to pay interns. In filing the complaint, the Plaintiffs hope to recover for lost wages.<\/span><\/p>\n Ballinger v. Advance Magazine Publishers<\/span><\/span> arose from a hiring practice by the Defendant that relies on a steady stream of interns to perform entry-level work that contributes to its magazines\u2019 operations and reduces its labor costs. As an intern at Conde Nast, Ballinger worked in W Magazine\u2019s accessories and fine jewelry departments, packing and unpacking accessories and jewelry, sorting through and organizing accessories and jewelry, running errands, filling out insurance forms and doing other productive work. Leib worked for Conde Nast at The New Yorker, reviewing submissions and passing on those that he recommended to his supervisors, responding to readers\u2019 emails, proofreading, line editing and relaying pieces between writers, cartoonists, and editors. <\/span><\/p>\n Advance Magazine Publishers, Inc. is a New York corporation with its principal executive office located in New York City. Conde Nast is a division of Advance Magazine Publishers and also has its headquarters located in the same place. The Defendants are a covered employer within the meaning of the FLSA and the NYLL and at all relevant times, employed plaintiffs and similarly situated interns throughout its organization. It is estimated that the size of the Intern Class is more than 100 individuals. According to its website, the Defendants require their interns to have \u201ca keen interest in the media industry\u201d and be enrolled in an undergraduate program in the United States that will award academic credit for participating in its Intern Program. <\/span><\/p>\n The Defendants paid intern\u2019s semester long stipends of either $550 or anywhere ranging from $300 to $500, which ended up averaging around a dollar per hour and payments of $12 a day regardless of hours worked (less than the minimum wage.) One of the plaintiffs reported working as many as 48 hours per week and as many as 14 hours in a given day. As a result the Plaintiffs brought several cause of actions alleging that the Defendants unlawfully violated federal and state labor laws by classifying them as unpaid interns instead of paid employees. <\/span><\/p>\n The first cause of action alleged that the Defendants failed to pay the Plaintiff and the Intern Collective the applicable minimum wage as determined by the FLSA for all hours it permitted its interns to work and in turn should entitle the Plaintiffs to recover such lost wages. The second cause of action alleged the same violation of minimum wage as determined by the NYLL ($7.15 per hour for all hours worked from January 1, 2007, through July 23, 2009 and $7.25 per hour for all hours worked from July 24, 2009 through the present.) The last cause of action alleged that the Defendants failed to pay additional compensation for one hour\u2019s pay at the minimum wage rate for each day during which they worked more than 10 hours. <\/span><\/p>\n The subject of unpaid interns continues to be of significant interest to the Court. Although the Defendants have yet to provide an answer to the recently filed complaint, many believe that the upcoming decision will be met with much public exposure given the recent U.S. Federal Court (S.D.N.Y) decision, Glatt v. Fox Searchlight Pictures<\/span>, made on June 11, 2013. There the S.D.N.Y. held that Fox Searchlight Pictures and Fox Entertainment Group violated Federal and State labor laws by failing to pay interns and that those unpaid interns may prosecute their claims as class actions on behalf of interns employed by specific Fox Entertainment Group subsidiaries. More specifically, the Glatt<\/span> Court held that the normal FLSA intern exception, which exempts businesses from providing minimum wage to interns qualifying as trainees did not apply to their interns working on movie productions since the Defendants received benefits of the interns unpaid work, which otherwise would have required paid employees. That seems to be the case in this situation as well.<\/span><\/p>\n Many other unpaid intern cases have appeared elsewhere. In February 2012, a former Harper\u2019s Bazaar intern sued Hearst Magazines, asserting that she regularly worked 40 to 55 hours a week without being paid. Last July, a federal court ruled that the plaintiff could proceed with her lawsuit as a collective action, certifying a class of all unpaid interns who worked in the company\u2019s magazines division since February 2009. This February, an unpaid intern sued Elite Model Management, seeking $50 million. <\/span><\/p>\n In sum, because the Court approved summary judgment for the Plaintiffs motion in Glatt<\/span> that they are employees covered by the FLSA and NYLL, class certification and condition certification, the Court confirmed employers across the country cannot simply slap the term ‘intern’ on a job description and think that it relieves themselves of the legal and ethical obligation to pay wages for the labor that helps their organization succeed. As Judge Pauley stated, \u201cr\u00e9sum\u00e9 listings, job references and an understanding of how a production office works,\u201d help interns, \u201cbut those benefits [are] incidental to working in the office like any other employees and were not the result of internships intentionally structured to benefit them.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n If you have worked as an unpaid intern without receiving academic credit, please contact the NYC Employment lawyers of Fitapelli & Schaffer for a free consultation.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\nConde Nast Allegedly Violates Federal and State, Wage and Hour Laws by Failing to Pay Interns
\nOn June 13, 2013, two former interns, Lauren Ballinger and Matthew Leib (Plaintiffs) filed a class action complaint in U.S. Federal Court (S.D.N.Y.) on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated against Conde Nast Publications and Advance Magazine Publishers (Defendants) alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and New York Labor Laws (NYLL) by failing to pay interns. In filing …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[23,1,22,24,27,21,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-class-action","category-employment-law","category-flsa-2","category-minimum-wage-2","category-ny-labor-law","category-overtime-2","category-unpaid-wages-2"],"yoast_head":"\n