Unpaid internships in Quebec

Currently, the Act respecting labor standards does not apply to a student who “works during the school year in an establishment chosen by an educational institution and under a initiation to work approved by the Ministry of Education, Recreation and Sport or by the Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology. »

In 2021, a very interesting case was won by a group of students who had summer jobs, but who were not entitled to the same salary compensation as the company’s other employees. In fact, it was Human Rights and Youth Rights Commissions v. Bécancour Smelter Inc.¹, where Justice Lewis of the Human Rights Tribunal said that paying students less – precisely because they are students – was an unlawful distinction, based on social condition. This distinction violates the right to dignity of students, because it does not respect their right to an equivalent salary for equivalent work. Finally, the Tribunal forced the Smelter to pay an indemnity of $1,000 to each student for moral damage suffered as a result of such discriminatory prejudice.

What we want to raise here is the inequity that exists for students who do an internship as part of their studies. We’re basically arguing that there’s no reason not to pay them for the work they do.

In the case of currently unpaid internships, there are several arguments in favor of granting remuneration that is both minimum and reasonable. First of all, let’s highlight section 10 of the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, which is the cornerstone of the cases of discrimination covered by this charter. Under this article, the plaintiff (or the victim) must prove that there was a “distinction, exclusion or preference”, based on an explicitly prohibited ground — including social condition — and having the “effect of destroy or impair” rights and freedoms. It is established that students have a particular social condition. So they form a particular social group in the Quebec state. Despite everything, as Dominique Bélanger and Pierre Lanthier, two judges of the Administrative Tribunal of Quebec, say: “there is an idea in Quebec society that student labor is cheap labor”².

Moreover, despite the fact that the perpetuation of stereotypes or prejudices is not a fundamental criterion for the analysis of a case of discrimination under section 10 of the Quebec Charter, the legislator has presented several stereotypes as clues in order to help the analysis. Among other stereotypes, there is that it is not necessary to pay students as much as “ordinary” employees, because they have no obligations or responsibilities and their skills are not as good than those of “real” employees. Besides, if employers didn’t hire them, no one would take them, so less pay is better than no pay. It is legitimate to wonder whether students in unpaid internships are subject to the same kind of stereotypes.

^{1 2018 QCTDP 12.}

^{2 Admitted judgment, para. 331; George v. Class Action Fund, [2002] TAQ 637, 2002 CanLII 55213, para. 92 (TAQ).}

Finally, section 19 of the Quebec Charter is just as interesting since it is the section that promotes pay equity. It is based on a concept of equivalence. The doctrine is very favorable to students. In particular, according to Henri Brun, Guy Tremblay and Eugénie Brouillet, ” [s]If the rule which applies to wages is that of equality, the criterion which applies to the point of comparison, work, is one of equivalence only: it is not necessary that it be of the same or absolutely equal work. This argument is interesting since it is based on the idea that there can be pay equity despite the fact that there is some divergence between two similar jobs. If we take the example of a nursing student, is her work so different from that of an “ordinary” nurse that we can justify the fact that her internship is unpaid?

The pandemic has brought to light the various flaws in our health system. If there is one essential thing that has been established, it is the lack of nurses, be they orderlies, nursing assistants, and so on. This is true for the health sector, but the realities are quite similar for future teachers or students working in the field of social services. It seems logical to maintain that, if the provincial government really wanted to promote and encourage young people to enroll in these environments, they should be offered paid internships throughout their studies.

We therefore insist that the Labor Standards Act be amended so that internships are duly remunerated. It is, it seems to us, a simple question of justice and fairness. In fact, all work deserves financial reward. For equal work, equal pay, as we used to say. This also applies to students

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