The UK government wrote to 500 companies telling them to start paying their interns — and doubled its war chest for cracking down on unpaid work

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• HMRC is targeting companies which advertise unpaid work.
• More than 500 were contacted since November, with plans for more.
• Genuine voluntary unpaid placements are legal, but any position with fixed hours and defined work must be compensated with hourly pay.
• Officials doubled the budget for tackling unpaid work, to £25 million.

The British government has sent letters to 500 companies telling them to start paying their interns as part of a new wave of measures against unpaid work.

Officials at HMRC, the UK’s tax and revenue department, are contacting around six employers every day to remind them that advertising for free work is often illegal, and can result in large fines.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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