FOX SEARCHLIGHT Sued By Interns Over BLACK SWAN

Two interns, who worked on BLACK SWAN, are not happy with their experience, and have filed a lawsuit against Fox Searchlight.

THE NEW YORK TIMES reports that a lawsuit was filed against Fox Searchlight Pictures (on Wednesday) for not providing their interns with an educational work experience while working on the film BLACK SWAN. Instead, the two men claim that they were assigned menial tasks. Labor laws insist that internships be educational, otherwise an employer is required to pay his/her interns.

THE NEW YORK TIMES article states:

“Fox Searchlight’s unpaid interns are a crucial labor force on its productions, functioning as production assistants and bookkeepers and performing secretarial and janitorial work,” the lawsuit says. “In misclassifying many of its workers as unpaid interns, Fox Searchlight has denied them the benefits that the law affords to employees.” Workplace experts say the number of unpaid internships has grown in recent years, in the movie business and many other industries. Some young people complain that these internships give an unfair edge to the affluent and well connected.

Alex Footman worked as a production intern in New York (Oct 2009-Feb 2010). He reports that his job consisted of making coffee, taking lunch orders, taking out trash and cleaning. The other intern involved in this suit, Eric Glatt, was an accounting intern. He claims to have prepared documents for petty cash, traveled to the set for signatures on documents, and to have created spreadsheets to track missing employee information. Glatt is a 42 year old graduate from Case Western Reserve University with an M.B.A.

Fox Searchlight has yet to comment on this case, other than stating that they had not reviewed it yet.

Source: THE NEW YORK TIMES