Our company is taking in interns for the very first time. Do interns have any rights? And what's their minimum pay?

Interns who are doing a kind of work that is of value to the employer have the right to be paid at least the national minimum wage. They also have the right to be paid holidays.

Aside from pay, what other rights do they have?

The right to be protected from excessive working hours.

They should also be protected against discrimination at work.

It actually depends on whether an intern is doing regular paid work for the employer. If so, the intern qualifies for "employee" status and will enjoy and benefit from a wide range of employment rights, which include unfair dismissal and redundancy rights as well as family friendly rights.

And what if the intern doesn't do regular paid work?

If the person is only work-shadowing during internship, he will only have limited employment rights.

A person's rights as an intern really depend on what happens in practice in the workplace. It depends on who decides the tasks that an intern does and what is expected by the employer. Just remember that just because a person is an intern, it does not mean that he should be deprived of employment rights.

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I am the Dreamer!

It would be safer to consider interns as employees