Intern Day: see rights of students starting their professional career

August 18 is the date of the intern, that professional at the beginning of their career who has to reconcile studies with work. These students follow different rules from those hired by the CLT regime, with specific rules for their conditions.

Currently, the rights of interns are guaranteed by Law 11,788/2008, which was created with the purpose of establishing the rules for hiring those enrolled in educational institutions.

To CNN Brasil Business labor lawyer Henrique Melo explained that students should be aware that the internship is a complementary practice to academic training, a way of being inserted in the market, and therefore cannot be handled by companies with a workload of already hired formed.

“O The internship has a limit of hours, the law provides for a working day of 6 hours a day and 30 hours a week for the student. It is important that they keep this in mind, as the company cannot make them work more than that on a weekly basis or compensate for working hours”, highlighted the lawyer.

Henrique explained that the contractor cannot force the student to work 4 hours one day and 8 hours the next day, for example. She must plan for the intern to work her six hours a day without exceeding the established time limit.

In addition, the lawyer pointed out that the intern does not have some benefits that the professional of the CLT regime is entitled to. “The intern is not entitled to FGTS or 13th, although the additional payment can be agreed between the two parties”, he said.

“The company is also not obliged to pay a food stamp for the student, despite being a common benefit that they use to attract interns”, he added.

According to the specialist, the rights that students who start an internship have are: remuneration, annual recess, transport vouchers and accident insurance. Additional benefits can be agreed with the company.

“O interns do not have vacations, but have an annual recess period, which is also remunerated and allows them to rest for one year of work. It is advisable that this recess be granted in July, when the student has a vacation from college, but nothing prevents companies from splitting this period of 30 days”, he highlighted.

Regarding remuneration, the lawyer pointed out that there is no salary floor for interns, and it is up to the company to offer the grant that it deems appropriate.

Statistics

According to the 2018 Inep/MEC Higher Education Census, of the 8,680,354 enrolled in universities, 740,000 were interns.

“This is a considerable number of individuals who have no contact with the benefits of practicing university teachings. Despite some progress in the last decade, the total is only 1,278,622 graduates”, highlighted the Brazilian Association of Internships (Abres).

The main reason for dropping out of the course is financial conditions, according to Abres. “That’s why the program is so important, because it helps to cover the necessary expenses”.

The association also highlights that the chances of an intern being hired after the contractual period of the internship vary between 40% and 60%.