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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2017
    Posts
    2

    Default Interns Were Not Compensated as Required by Foreign Law

    Hello,
    I am a french student. I, along with 2 other students in my class were supposed to go to San Francisco for an internship in a startup. The agreement was that the employer would pay us the airplane trip as well as lodging in the US. But due to some money problems in the startup we finally did the internship in France. It lasted 13 weeks, In France an internship that lasts more than 8 weeks needs to be paid. But my employer says that it is an american company and does not want to pay me even though he signed an agreement saying that the internship would be in SF and that he would pay us the trip as well as lodging in the US. I would like to know what I can do about that? Legally in the US, since he signed an internship agreement saying the previous things and did not respect that contract, isn't there something to do? I would simply like to obtain my minimum wage.

    Another thing that may probably be illegal is the fact that this startup has at most 6 employees and hired 3 unpaid interns in order to do their Android App. Isn't the fact that they are 6 and hired 3 interns a problem?
    Can you please tell me what can be done here?

    Thank you in advance for your answer !

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Posts
    8,006

    Default Re: Internship That Does Not Respect That Agreement

    Unpaid internships are still pretty much the norm in the US. As the agreement was to pay for your flight and lodging, and neither occurred, they do not appear to contractually owe you anything. A caveat would be if you purchased non-refundable airfare and lost that money, they may be on the hook for that.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Posts
    18,340

    Default Re: Internship That Does Not Respect That Agreement

    Quote Quoting Jean1994
    View Post

    Can you please tell me what can be done here?

    !
    Same answer you got on the other sites.

    You and your employer are in France.

    You need to seek legal assistance in France.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2017
    Posts
    2

    Default Re: Internship That Does Not Respect That Agreement

    Allright, but how about the fact that the intership was supposed to be in SF and they decided to do it in France, where there is no company there? Isn't that out of line?

    And secondly, what about the fact that they are 6 employees who hired 3 interns? Isn't this number way too much for the number of employees? and in this case isn't there something to do?

    Thank you very much for you answers, I am a bit lost at this moment...

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    Lake Chapala
    Posts
    3,043

    Default Re: Internship That Does Not Respect That Agreement

    If you were working in France, then the company legally must have some sort of entity in France. You need to go to whatever labor board there is in France and try to get redress through them. The fact that they hired three interns while having only six employees may or may not be relevant. We cannot help you here, your redress is through French labor law.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Massachusetts
    Posts
    24,521

    Default Re: Internship That Does Not Respect That Agreement

    If they didn't do the internship in the US, the US law does not apply. You can come up with all the but-what-ifs you want to, but this falls under French law no matter how much you want it to fall under US law.

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