Refusing to pay stipend
7 months ago
I joined as a lead generation intern at a startup called Your Team. I have the offer letter and other conversation proof of it. However after a month, I was refused pay. The reasoning was given that myself and another intern were only kept under observation for the latter two weeks, and they were taking the time to decide if they want to continue to work with us, so they would not be paying us. There was no mention of this "observation" whatsoever.
The work environment was really toxic so two weeks into the internship we had expressed our wish to leave but we were convinced to stay back. We have completed one month of work and now are being refused pay. We have worked every week of the month and also have taken upon extra work that was not mentioned in the job role.
Can I take legal action? What would be the best way to go ahead?
Internships are often unpaid and may not lead to a full-time job. Stipends are provided to those ineligible to receive a regular salary or wage in return for their services. Researchers, graduate students, clergy, interns and apprentices are common recipients. However, internships remain an unregulated sector and as a result, in most cases, interns are not legally entitled to minimum wages or modes of legal redressal that otherwise apply to permanent employees. So considering the status of interns, in the absence of a specific stipulation in your offer letter, your claim for payment of a stipend may not be upheld even through litigation.
Send them a legal notice to recover your dues but do check before sending whether in your offer letter they had mentioned about the payment or not. If they have not mentioned that in that case you can just ignore, if it was paid then go for it.
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