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Litigating former Warner intern also sues New York studio over employment practices
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 1 July 2013
The former Warner Music intern who is suing the major for the six months he worked there unpaid, last week also launched litigation against a New York studio complex, claiming it also breached state laws on the minimum wage.
As previously reported, Justin Henry launched a class action last month against the Atlantic US division of Warner, claiming that its policy of utilising unpaid interns breached New York state employment laws. The claimant is seeking payment for the time he spent working for the major between October 2007 and May 2008.
Henry joined the Chung King Studios the following October, initially in an unpaid internship role, and then from January 2009 to August 2010 working night shifts on a flat rate of $200 a week. In his lawsuit, Henry claims that he and others worked “in various positions related to the maintenance and operations of the music studio”, working twelve hour overnight shifts four nights a week for the $200 payment.
This, Henry claims, breached both minimum wage and overtime rules in New York state law. This claim is also a class action, meaning that if he was successful, others who worked on the same terms could also claim back pay.
Henry isn’t the only person suing New York-based media and entertainment companies about unpaid internships or casual work that breaches minimum wage rules, with a flurry of lawsuits having been recently filed, it seems. Neither Warner nor Chung King Studios have as yet commented on the action. If any of these cases are successful, it could cause some urgent rethinking of intern and causal labour policies at US entertainment firms.