FELA - protecting railroad workers since 1908

        In the late 19 century and the beginning of 20th century the U.S. railroad companies thrived and expanded but the working conditions for the average Joe in this area were a bet with death. The number of deaths and injuries were of the order of thousands, and the victims may have been in the situation of waiting years for verdict in court if the railroad companies fought the decisions.
       Many of them wouldn't even go to court seeking their legal compensation fearing disciplinary action and retaliation.
     
       President Benjamin Harrison once compared the struggle and toil of a railroad worker to that of a soldier on the battlefield.
     "It is a reproach to our civilization that any class of American workmen, should in the pursuit of a necessary and useful vocation, be subjected to a peril of life and limb as great as that of a soldier in time of war".

      Something had to be changed. The gloomy statistics had to draw the attention of the legislation.

     The Federal Employers Liability Act was passed by Congress in 1908 and it meant that railroad workers had the right to sue their employers for  damages if they were injured while doing their job since they were not covered by  regular workers’ compensation laws.
       
       Ever since, FELA was a guardian for a safe working environment, even if conditions have surely changed since the late 1800. FELA also has been protecting workers from the pressure exercised by companies against those who want to seek legal consultation when they feel their rights are violated. 

      As an  example , it's a little known fact that sometimes workers who have sustained injuries are entitled to more than just compensation since their employers will always seek to minimize their costs on the legal battlefield.

     The best advice for a victim of a work accident in the railroad bussiness is to contact an experienced  FELA attorney

   

Unpaied internship - modern slavery

It's almost June and graduation day is close if not already here for students throughout the world. But what has the future in store for them now that school is over. Most students accumulated not only knowledge during college but also a pretty large debt so they might be thinking to end the after grad party a little earlier and start scouting for jobs.
We've all been probably told by our parents and family " finish a college and you'll get a good job" but it seems time has changed and a college degree doesn't really makes so much a difference anymore on the market now. So what does?

Applying for an internship has been popular for some time now among students , and while unpaid internship were mostly for non-profit organizations nowadays, they expanded to almost all domains of activity from fashion houses and film to law firms.

An internship system means that the intern is offering his services to his employer in exchange for experience in that particular field of work. This might help the intern get a clear grasp of the career he wants to follow, receive some school credits, and do a better job in his future workplace as he will not require a long training if even one at all when he starts as a regular employee.  The internship period can be paid, unpaid or partially paid , but what is particular for this system is the fact that the interns job does not benefit the employer so much, thus differentiating from real paid work. In US, nearly all internships must be paid, at least minimum wage according to FLSA( Fair Labor Standard Act) unless it qualifies with the following:

1. The training, even though it includes actual operations of the facilities of the employers, is similar to that which would be given in a vocational school 
2. The training is for the benefit of the student.
3. The student does not displace a regular employee, but works under the close observation of a regular employee or supervisor.
4. The employer provides the training and derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the student; and on occasion, the operations may actually be impeded by the training.
5. The student is not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the training period.
6. The employer and the student understand that the student is not entitled to wages for the time spent training.

A few weeks of working on your daddy' s store no longer adds weight to an average post-grad since most students now already have several months of experience with one or more companies even before graduation.
With today's economy and the battle for those few good jobs out there getting tougher than the Hunger games,  many young adults will agree to take unpaid internships just to get a foot ahead.

But what might have started as an opportunity to gain experience and enhance your education turned out to be more similar to slavery as many interns report working even more than a regular employee, for no payment what so ever.

Melissa Reyes from Melissa Reyes declared for New York Times how she often worked from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. five days a week.  After graduating from Marist College with a degree in fashion merchandising like many other she applied for an internship and got admitted at  Diane von Furstenberg Fashion House. She found the educational value of her activity there not as she expected. “They had me running out to buy them lunch, they had me cleaning out the closets, emptying out the past season's items.”

 Dan O’Connell wasn't even that lucky, as he reported for MainStreet.com. Close to graduation he sought an internship with an ad agency to realize the "agency" a woman working part -time from home. Among his duties were "to write school assignments for her daughter " and "wash her car".

In 2009 The Huffington Post , a renowned website, and a great opportunity for young  journalists to get noticed, auctioned a internship post . The bid was as high as 13 000$.

Why do students put up with this one might ask? Unfortunately , most of them don't have a choice as job market is going down and more and more requirements are expected from candidates.  Furthermore,  in a bitter irony, the work that could have been done by fresh graduates is now entrusted to unpaid interns.
But not everybody can afford the luxury of working for free, so as to be expected, poor students won't be able to get the needed experience and therefore will be denied the same opportunities and have to deal with less wanted and less paid jobs, despite their potential.

It surely looks like a profitable deal for employers but is this just white-collar slavery in disguise for students and what are the effects on the long terms when companies choose unpaid unskilled work over regular paid employees?