Interns: To pay or not to pay them

On Friday, December 29, 2017, Twitter hashtag #InternsNotBeastsOfBurden was trending for the better part of the day. It was prompted by news that some companies were either paying interns very little or not at all.

Interns are usually students on industrial attachment or graduates who have not yet found a job and end up accepting placement offers.

Kenyans on Twitter named the companies they said do not pay interns and accused them of enslaving the workers.

While industrial attachment is a requirement for every student in college or university and is part of the programme, internship comes after one has graduated from college or university.

It gives fresh graduates hands-on experience at the workplace, with the hope of securing a permanent position.

While most internships take a year or more, industrial attachment mostly take between three to six months.

In Kenya, however, the policy on internship payment is still unclear.

Some companies pay their interns while others don’t. According to Emmanuel Mutuma, the CEO of BrighterMonday, a job recruitment agency, interns should be paid a stipend.

“Interns should acknowledge the opportunity to be given a chance to earn some work experience within an organisation. They should accept the opportunity with enthusiasm, paid or not,” said Mutuma. “Work experience gives entry-level job seekers a competitive edge that offers them a higher chance of getting a position in the future.”

He adds: “If it comes with a small stipend, that’s good. However, that should not be the determining factor. I encourage organisations to facilitate the interns by paying them to help them meet their daily expenses such as transport costs and food.”

Labour rights

The secretary general and CEO of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union, Ouma Oluga, says interns should be treated with decorum, just like other workers in the company, and get other labour rights and benefits.

“For us in the heath sector, we value interns because they form 30 per cent of the workforce since they are at the forefront in service delivery. “That’s why we drafted an internship policy and guidelines for the public service in 2016, which are currently at the Public Service Commission awaiting implementation,” says Dr Oluga.

He adds that internship is not just a learning experience, as many think or say, but that it adds value to the company and that is why interns should be paid to help them meet their daily expenses. “This policy provides a framework for engagement and management of internship programmes in the public service,” he said. “It outlines the various provisions and requirements of the programme, selection procedures, and roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders in the internship programme.”

Clause 2.9, under intern entitlements, says interns are entitled to sick leave as applicable in the prevailing regulations, annual leave, compassionate leave, stipend, and subsistence allowance when out of station at a rate to be determined by the commission.

Among the companies that pay interns are General Motors (now Isuzu), Safaricom Sh20,000 a month, Kenya Vehicle Manufacturers in Thika, BBC Sh20,000, and Standard Group Sh7,000.

The Safaricom head of talent management and capability, Joseph Mokaya, says the company pays interns as part of its talent attraction and retention initiative.

“We believe that paying them introduces them to a world of work in which people are paid fair wages for work done. Beyond giving them some money to take care of basic needs such as transport and lunch, paying them also teaches them skills such as budgeting and financial planning, which are crucial to learning how to manage income from an early age,” says Mokaya.

“Our interns are paid an average of Sh20, 000 a month. In addition to that they receive benefits such as medical insurance cover and access to our facilities such as the gym and the mothers’ room.”

Cynthia Tiani, a human resource manager at Heritage Insurance, says their interns are entitled to a stipend.