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If an internship is considered a mandatory internship, there is no entitlement to minimum wage - no matter how much responsibility the interns have (symbol image)
Photo: Jan Woitas / picture alliance / dpa / dpa central image
Under what conditions does the minimum wage apply to interns?
The Federal Labor Court in Erfurt dealt with this question on Wednesday.
After completing her nursing internship in a clinic, a prospective medical student asked to be paid the minimum wage and to be compensated for missing vacation days.
Total: 10,270 euros for six months of work.
However, the court decided: Interns are not entitled to a minimum wage for an internship, which according to the regulations of a university is a prerequisite for admission to study.
Mandatory internship or not?
According to the admission regulations of the private university to which she wanted to apply, the plaintiff had to prove that she had completed a six-month nursing internship before beginning her studies.
She completed this on the nursing ward of a clinic in Rhineland-Palatinate, without pay.
Afterwards, she argued that unpaid internships were only allowed for up to three months.
And since her internship took place before starting a course of study, it is not a mandatory internship within the meaning of the Minimum Wage Act.
In addition, the clinic has benefited enormously from her work: As an intern, she also represented the full-time ward assistant for about a month.
But the Federal Labor Court dismissed her claim.
The minimum wage law does not apply here.
As justification, the Erfurt judges referred to an exception clause for internships that goes back to school or university law provisions.
This not only includes internships during the course of study, but also those that are a mandatory requirement for the start of the course.
Paragraph 22 of the Minimum Wage Act was important for the decision.
There it says first that internships are also covered by the Minimum Wage Act.
Whether this actually applies depends essentially on whether the internship is voluntary or mandatory.
Mandatory internships are part of the course, they are in the study or examination regulations.
Voluntary internships, on the other hand, are independent of your studies.
They can take place, for example, to provide orientation before choosing a course of study or career, or during the semester break.
Only if an internship is voluntary is there an entitlement to vacation days, from a duration of three months also to minimum wage.
Both of these do not apply to compulsory interns.
For the Federal Labor Court it was clear that the case of the prospective medical student was a mandatory internship, even if it took place before her studies.
The length of the internship and the tasks that the intern took on did not matter.
taf/AFP