Open Season On Interns

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**Ahtman**

Get your booty pinches and unprofessional remarks ready, becuase it isn't illegal to sexually harass an intern! *fist pump*

Unpaid interns don't get wages and benefits. It turns out, they're also not protected from sexual harassment.

A New York federal district court ruled last week that Lihuan Wang, an intern at a TV broadcaster named Phoenix Satellite Television U.S., could not bring a sexual harassment claim under New York human rights laws because she was not paid, and therefore not considered an employee.

Wang was a graduate student at Syracuse University in 2009 when she interned in the New York bureau of Phoenix Satellite Television, the American subsidiary of Hong Kong-based media conglomerate Phoenix Media Group.

In a lawsuit, she said the station's Washington D.C. bureau chief Zhengzhu Liu sexually harassed her after luring her to his hotel room on the pretext that he wanted to talk about her job performance and the possibility of hiring her full time.

When the two were alone, Wang alleged that Liu threw his arms around the then 22-year-old intern, tried to kiss her and "squeezed her buttocks with his left hand." After she refused to let him go any further and left the hotel, she said Liu no longer expressed interest in permanently hiring her.

New York Judge Kevin Castel ruled that Wang can't assert these claims, because as an unpaid intern, she didn't have the status of an employee.

"It is uncontested that Wang received no remuneration for her services," Castel wrote. "New York City's Human Rights Law's protection of employees does not extend to unpaid interns."

Related: White House under pressure to pay its interns

Wang has since moved back to China. According to the ruling and a lawyer for Phoenix Satellite, Liu was terminated from his job once the company investigated the allegations.

Article

**purplefood**

So does that mean you can sexually harass anyone as long as you don't pay (Or employ) them?

**Ouze**

This seems like bad law.

**Wyrmalla**

I would assume that they would just omit the person who harassed them as their employer in court, or are their major differences between an employee being abused and your average joe?

**purplefood**

Wyrmalla wrote:
I would assume that they would just omit the person who harassed them as their employer in court, or are their major differences between an employee being abused and your average joe?

That's what I thought.

**Frazzled**

Charge them with battery then. Thats harmful or offensive touching.

PLatsbangawoozle!

**Ouze**

Frazzled wrote:
Charge them with battery then. Thats harmful or offensive touching.

I agree that's what happened, but how could a DA press those charges? There is no evidence.

edit: I guess on the other hand sexual harassment suits get litigated all the time though under similar situations.

**Frazzled**

Ouze wrote:
Frazzled wrote:
Charge them with battery then. Thats harmful or offensive touching.

I agree that's what happened, but how could a DA press those charges? There is no evidence.

edit: I guess on the other hand sexual harassment suits get litigated all the time though under similar situations.

exactly. You pursue it like any criminal claim, with the evidence.

**hotsauceman1**

Internships in general are stupid. You do work, you should get paid.

**Ouze**

I agree that unpaid internships are an outdated idea with no place in contemporary society.

**gossipmeng**

Companies get away with internships because of the unemployment rate. You can sit around for a year looking for work or you can work for free and hope that after a few months the company will hire you.

Of my friends who graduated with me in 2011, the ones who did these stupid internships did get full-time work within a few months. The one's who held out took much longer to get work. Personally, I went the route of minimum wage temp jobs until the big fish noticed me and gave me a break.

**hotsauceman1**

Because they do not pay them they can pile on stupid amounts of work on them.

**Ouze**

This article made it to fark, with a helpful image.

**feeder**

If you follow their gaze those two metros are clearly admiring her blouse.

**Jihadin**

This is wrong on so many level. At the moment the Law fails in this. Only defense to prevent this is a written company policy that's enforceable. Then though that also depends how strongly its enforced amongst the employee's and employers.

**Dreadclaw69**

That just comes across as such bad law

**Easy E**

A female co-worker pointed out to me how you could tell an intern. The Interns couldn't walk in heels.

**Frazzled**

If our interns walked in heels it would be an epic event as they are all guys this year. One is a football player.

**Alfndrate**

Frazzled wrote:
If our interns walked in heels it would be an epic event as they are all guys this year. One is a football player.

I'm sure he's graceful and dainty.

**hotsauceman1**

At my school Ballet classes were required for football players.
The Coach said he wanted them to be limber and not so stiff and rigid, In mine and body.

**Frazzled**

hotsauceman1 wrote:
At my school Ballet classes were required for football players.
The Coach said he wanted them to be limber and not so stiff and rigid, In mine and body.

At my school they just practiced knocking down brick walls with the front line.

**KalashnikovMarine**

My question is why did she bring suit for harrassment instead of criminal charges for sexual assault?

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

Either

1. there was insufficient evidence for a criminal case to be brought by the state (quite likely in a she says/he says situation with no other evidence) and the harassment suit was an attempt to at least have a day in court

or

2. the harassment suit was chosen as if the accuser won it they'd end up with a cash pay out (where a criminal case tend to end with the state pocketing the lions share of any fine)

**nkelsch**

OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
Either

1. there was insufficient evidence for a criminal case to be brought by the state (quite likely in a she says/he says situation with no other evidence) and the harassment suit was an attempt to at least have a day in court

or

2. the harassment suit was chosen as if the accuser won it they'd end up with a cash pay out (where a criminal case tend to end with the state pocketing the lions share of any fine)

Well Sexual Harassment is civil issue. Sexual Assault is criminal. Pretty much anyone can say sexual comments or gestures to anyone and it is not necessarily illegal unless someone is using it in a position of power.

So there was probably not enough evidence to press charges for sexual assault and there was probably no evidence of 'damages' to be gained in a civil suit as she would just need to be made 'whole' not get a payday since she wasn't paid anything.

Boils down to: "what do you want them to do?" Does she want a new boss? Does she want to still be considered for a job? Does she want the person fired? He was already fired. She seems to have left the company and area, so what 'damages' is she feel she is owed? If there is nothing to do, what is the point of the case?

At least if she was a student, she could sue for back tuition or the cost of changing schools, or if she was an employee, she could sue for lost wages and job changing expenses and lost experience/impact to her career.

All she could really do was push hard for criminal sexual assault, and that would be a rough case as he could just claim he misunderstood her actions and when she said stop, he stopped.

It is an odd case, but I really wonder 'what is the desired outcome' other than 'gimmie free moniez'. Usually you have to prove damages.

**Grey Templar**

Given that people have been arrested for making comments on Twitter you think this would be open and shut.

**Ahtman**

Grey Templar wrote:
Given that people have been arrested for making comments on Twitter you think this would be open and shut.

Arrested and charged aren't the same thing, and often times in those cases there was a lot more going on then is passed around the water cooler that is the internet.

**Fafnir**

hotsauceman1 wrote:
Internships in general are stupid. You do work, you should get paid.

I've had internships that paid quite well.

That said, unpaid internships are pretty stupid. If you don't end up getting hired, you've done little more than had advantage taken of you, and working for less than your worth devalues that worth. I dislike the idea of gambling for employment.

**hotsauceman1**

I have a question, Since it is open season on Interns....
1. What size gun should I use
2. What bait
3. Should I hide in the trashcan or in the ceiling?

**Ahtman**

hotsauceman1 wrote:
I have a question, Since it is open season on Interns....
1. What size gun should I use
2. What bait
3. Should I hide in the trashcan or in the ceiling?

I will answer your question, but you must meet me alone at a hotel to discuss it.

**Kovnik Obama**

Ouze wrote:
This article made it to fark, with a helpful image.

A) Young Obama is pocket fapping
B) Blonde dude got a downward smirk, like he's thinking ''meh, Tony's got way firmer glutes"
C) Where the hell are these guys working that have wine glasses in the office kitchen?
D) Peripheral vision, dudes. Learn it. You make all of us perverted males look bad.
E) Those pants looks like those weird loose pseudo-bell-bottoms. They are not flattering.