One intern reportedly was hospitalised due to dehydration.
PHOTO: NEWSMAX
The interns, led by lead plaintiff Shahista Lalani, have filed a class-action lawsuit alleging wage theft. The work conditions they were allegedly exposed to include 50-hour average work weeks with no pre-determined working hours, doing menial labour-intensive tasks, running personal errands for paid employees, and no pre-determined breaks.
In Lalani's case, the extreme work conditions during her 5-month internship eventually took a severe toll on her health and she ended up being hospitalised for dehydration. A graduate of the Parsons School of Design in Manhattan, Lalani interned under the head technical designer for The Row. In an interview with The Post, Lalani expressed that the designer had been "very demanding" and that she was made to do "the work of three interns". She also expressed that she had seen "a lot of kids crying doing coffee runs, photocopying stuff".
The law suit demands minimum wage and overtime for all of the current and former interns filing it, on the basis that they had all been doing jobs similar to those of the paid employees and had not received either monetary or academic compensation for those jobs.
In a statement issued about the suit by the company's spokeswoman Annett Wolf, The Post was told that “Dualstar is not aware of this". There was no comment made on the companies intern policy.
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