New York: Two interns who worked for the film Black Swan are suing Fox Searchlight, the production company behind the film, claiming they violated minimum wage and overtime laws.
Alex Footman, 24, and Eric Glatt, 42, have criticised the film industry’s practice of unpaid internships by filing a lawsuit in federal court in Manhattan. The duo said that the production company failed to provide training similar to what would be given in an educational institution, the New York Times reports.
“Fox Searchlight’s unpaid interns are a crucial labour force on its productions, functioning as production assistants and bookkeepers and performing secretarial and janitorial work. In misclassifying many of its workers as unpaid interns, Fox Searchlight has denied them the benefits that the law affords to employees,” the lawsuit states. Footman whose responsibilities included making coffee and taking out garbage said, “The only thing I learned on this internship was to be more picky in choosing employment opportunities. ‘Black Swan’ had more than USD 300 million in revenues. If they paid us, it wouldn’t make a big difference to them, but it would make a huge difference to us.” Glatt, an accounting intern who says he took the job because he wanted to move into the film industry added, “When I started looking for opportunities in the industry, I saw that most people accept an ugly trade-off. If you want to get your foot in the door on a studio picture, you have to suck it up and do an unpaid internship.” (PTI)