Unpaid NYC Council intern who says she was fired for labor organizing just sued the city in federal court for wages.
After allegedly being fired from her unpaid position as a New York City Council intern for labor organizing that aimed to push the legislative body to pay her and her colleagues for their work, Mina Farahmand is now taking the city to federal court to seek wages there.
Farahmand, 21, filed a class action claim earlier this week under the Federal Labor Standards Act, asking Manhattan’s federal court to force the city to pay its $17/hour minimum wage to her and hundreds of other unpaid interns that the city legislature has employed over the years. She sees it as the next logical step in her fight to end the city’s practice of using unpaid labor to run its legislative body.
“I and others have had stolen wages, and we’re going to win those wages back because that is what we deserve as workers,” said Farahmand, who helped start an organizing campaign in June to get all Council interns paid $32/hour and healthcare while serving as a legislative intern for Council Member Harvey Epstein (D-Manhattan). “I believe that people deserve to get paid for their work.”
“Unpaid internships do not work for working-class people,” she added. “Ultimately, my internship was an illegal, unpaid internship where I deserved wages, and I was illegally fired for organizing.”
https://www.amny.com/law/unpaid-nyc-council-intern-fired-suit-wages/
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