The Stage

HMRC to investigate The X Factor over unpaid intern claims

Published Monday 12 December 2011 at 10:25 by Matthew Hemley

Tax officials are to investigate claims that interns have been working unpaid on The X Factor.

Backstage union BECTU said Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs is investigating allegations that interns have been employed as fashion assistants on this series of The X Factor. The allegations, first raised by careers advice website Graduate Fog, suggest interns have been working for three months on an expenses-only basis.

On its site, Graduate Fog said it had received information that the interns duties involved “organising contestant and dancer clothes” as well as “pressing garments, customising garments and doing returns after the live shows”.

After hearing the allegations, BECTU said they should be passed to HMRC for investigation.

BECTU said: “The claims, supported by evidence gathered by Graduate Fog from teams which work on the prime time show, were referred to HMRC, the authority with responsibility for enforcing the national minimum wage.”

The union added that it had initially been concerned that a referral to HMRC would be difficult with the series having ended its current run at the weekend.

However, it added: “BECTU has been advised that if HMRC does decide to investigate it can do so retrospectively. In fact where an employer is found to have behaved unlawfully, payments for affected staff can be ordered up to six years in arrears. All employers are required to keep records of payments to staff going back at least three years.”

Talkback Thames, which makes The X Factor, said it “does not use free interns”, and that it also was not aware of interns being used by the show’s stylist, Laury Smith.

“We have a strict policy on all of our shows where we always pay people except when they are doing genuine, short-term work experience and are not actually performing any work or it’s a formal school or college placement. Everyone else is paid. We were not aware that interns were being used by the stylist and we are looking into the matter,” it said.

A spokeswoman for HMRC said: “We take allegations of this nature very seriously. Our statutory duty of confidentiality means we cannot discuss individual cases, but every complaint we receive regarding the national minimum wage is looked into.”

In October, HMRC announced it was launching a new campaign to crack down on pay abuse within television and film companies, revealing it would be carrying out “spot checks”.

HMRC said it will “conduct targeted enforcement” on trade sectors that use “interns and work experience as a means for young people to gain the experience necessary to work in those sectors”.