Lawmakers Want Federal Employees to Stop Harassing Interns

Interns are often the victims of opportunistic supervisors who require them to perform menial tasks without pay.

They should not, however, be the victims of sexual harassment or discrimination. To that end, several Democrats have introduced separate bills on Tuesday to protect the budding workers in the Executive and Legislative branches, as well as the private sector.

The Federal Intern Protection Act would amend Title V of the U.S. Code -- which governs the federal workforce -- to provide interns all the protections afforded to regular federal employees. Lawmakers said the change would “close existing loopholes” that permit discrimination prohibited for all other American workers under the Civil Rights Act. Current federal laws also leave interns facing sexual harassment or age-based discrimination with little or no recourse, the Democrats said.

The Congressional Intern Protection Act and the Unpaid Intern Protection Act would provide the same protections to apprentices on Capitol Hill and in the private sector, respectively.

“It is unacceptable that employees and interns working right next to each other have different levels of protection against abuse,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md. “There should be no legal grey area when we are talking about preventing sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace.”

Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., called the intern loophole “blatantly unfair.”

“Nobody -- from a junior intern to a senior executive -- deserves to be harassed, discriminated or retaliated against at work,” Meng said. “A negative experience like this can be devastating to young interns as they start their careers, and these types of incidents can have terrible impacts on their futures.”

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