Pay Your Interns Bag Campaign By Student Union of University of Arts London

The Bag Says It All...
The Student Union of the University of Arts London has started a campaign called
The Student Union of the University of Arts London has started a campaign called
www.suarts.org/campaign

"Pay your interns" bags, which are the latest effort in the campaign to encourage employers to pay their interns, have proved a huge hit among students.

The bags are part of a campaign, which already has nearly 2,000 supporters, by the student union at the University of Arts in London. The movement called "The Devils Wears Nada" aims to raise awareness of illegal, non-paid internships in the creative industries.

Speaking to Huffington Post UK, Fairooz Aniqa the culture and diversity officer, explained the thinking behind the popular bag: "I thought of the bag as a means of subverting the fashion industry, and gave out bags with a strong and clear message in a similar style to other companies who give out free goody bags at Fashion Week.

The eye-catching bags

"I knew this would be a smart way of getting the information contained in the bags into the hands of interns and visitors of Fashion week, so I went ahead and produced about 200 of them.

"We have given the majority away at the event itself as they were a major hit. We had people coming up to us to ask for one. We ran out fairly quickly!"

The bags are available for £4 on the SU website.

The debate on unpaid internships is gathering steam, with Hazel Blears leading a debate in Westminister Hall. She said of unpaid internships: "to live and work for free is exploitative, unfair and just plain wrong."

Earlier this year, HMRC's successfully helped 167 people who identified themselves as interns, volunteers or work experience workers reclaim £192,808 in unpaid wages.

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