Alex Footman and Eric Glatt, who worked on the $300 million Fox Searchlight hit in 2009, claim their internships were illegal. US federal law states that internships may only be unpaid if they offer participants educational value, and do not displace regular employees. The claimants maintain that their experience included menial work with little or no educational value.

Taking lunch orders

Mr Footman claims that ‘the only thing I learned on this internship was to be more picky in choosing employment opportunities,’ after spending six months making coffee, taking lunch orders, cleaning the production office and emptying bins.’
According to The Guardian newspaper, the suit, which will be heard in a Manhattan federal court next week, seeks to gain compensation for the pair and new plaintiffs from Fox Searchlight’s parent company Twentieth Century Fox, as well as provide a legal ruling banning internships of this sort.

Scared to speak out

One of the duo’s lawyers, Adam Klein -- partner and chairman of the class action practice group at New York employment law specialist firm Outten & Golden – was reported in the New York Times as saying that the case could prove highly significant, prompting other mistreated interns to take action. Mr Klein claimed that ‘unpaid interns are usually too scared to speak out and to bring such a lawsuit because they are frightened it will hurt their chances of finding future jobs in their industry.’
Twentieth Century Fox has so far not commented on the litigation development. Last year, a statement described the initial action as attention-seeking and ‘completely meritless claims’. The studio noted that Mr Footman and Mr Glatt were at no point employed by Fox, instead working for director Darren Aronofsky’s company.