A U.S. District Court in New York recently granted summary judgment to two unpaid interns holding that they were "employees" entitled to wages under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the New York Labor Law (NYLL). Glatt v. Fox Searchlight Pictures Inc., 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 82079 (S.D.N.Y. June 11, 2013). Glatt has generated intense debate regarding whether internships should be paid, and has paved the way for other interns to file similar lawsuits.
Eric Glatt and Alexander Footman had worked on the film Black Swan (starring Natalie Portman) as unpaid interns. They, along with other interns, brought a putative class action under the FLSA and NYLL against Fox Entertainment Group Inc., and one of its subsidiaries, Fox Searchlight Pictures Inc. They claimed that they were misclassified as unpaid interns or trainees, and that defendants violated federal and state labor laws by not paying them wages.
