Students participating in internships, externships, or professional development studies may use the following graphic to learn more about their rights under different employment protections.  Click on the image for a closer look.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To review: 

As an intern, you may be covered by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) if you are receiving significant remuneration, like health care benefits. The Missouri Commission on Human Rights may provide protections if you are not receiving academic credit in return for the work you’re doing at the internship. Lastly, you will receive Victim Economic Safety and Security Act (VESSA) time off as an intern so long as your workplace employs more than 20 employees. 

 

As an unpaid intern, you will not receive protections through the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) because you’re not receiving significant remuneration, such as health care benefits. You may be covered under the Missouri Commission on Human Rights if you are not receiving academic credit in return for your internship work. Finally, you may be able to receive unpaid time off through the Victims Economic Safety and Security Act (VESSA) if the employer considers you employed with them. If they do consider you an employee, and the organization employs more than 20 people, you may be eligible to use unpaid time off through VESSA. 

 

As an externship participant, you may access protections through the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) if you’re receiving significant remuneration, such as health care benefits. You may receive protections through the Missouri Commission on Human Rights if you are not receiving academic credit for your work. Lastly, you may receive unpaid time off through the Victims Economic Safety and Security Act as long as you’re considered employed by your workplace and they employ 20 or more employees.

 

As a professional development participant who is not receiving academic credit for your work, you cannot receive protections through any of the three listed programs. 

 

 

Title IX

Title IX, “Title Nine,” aims to eliminate hostile environments at educational institutions for students, staff, and faculty. Essentially, Title IX prohibits higher education systems from discriminating or excluding individuals on the basis of sex. While there are set requirements through Title IX, each institution may have different policies, practices, or procedures relating to reports of sexual violence or harassment and how the campus investigates the report. This also means that each campus may have different policies for reports relating to sexual harassment or assault experienced by students while working for an internship or externship. Depending on whether the internship/externship program was a requirement of your degree, whether the program was held on campus, or by an on-campus organization.   

Contact your campus’ relationship violence organization, wellness center, or equivalent student organization to learn about your options through Title IX or other campus and local resources or services.  

 

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Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is a federal agency that enforces laws that make discrimination illegal in the workplace. The EEOC oversees a variety of work situations such as hiring, firing, promotions, harassment, training, wages, and benefits. Learn more about the EEOC’s authority and role.  

 

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Missouri’s Commission on Human Rights (MCHR)

MCHR enforces Missouri’s Human Rights Act, an anti-discrimination law prohibiting discrimination in housing, employment, and places of public accommodations. The Missouri Human Rights Act protects individuals against discrimination on the basis of their sex, including pregnancy-based discrimination, compensation discrimination, sexual harassment, and gender-based harassment. Learn more about the Missouri Commission on Human Rights. 

 

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Missouri’s Victim Economic Safety and Security Act (VESSA) 285.625-670 RSMo

Missouri’s Victim Economic Safety and Security Act (VESSA) 285.625-670 RSMo is a law requiring employers in the state with 20 or more employees to provide unpaid leave for victims of domestic or sexual violence and their family or household members. The unpaid leave may be used to seek medical attention, recover from an injury, obtain victim services, obtain counseling, participate in safety planning, seek legal assistance, or participate in legal proceedings. Read MOCADSV’s resource on VESSA.     

Some students may feel uncomfortable or intimidated about reaching out for help or reporting an incident of harassment or discrimination in their working environment. Understanding the forms of sexual violence and harassment can help students identify harassment or discrimination.  

Sexual harassment refers to a variety of behaviors, such as unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, unwanted touching, or any other form of inappropriate conduct of a sexual nature. The intent or motivation of the perpetrator does not excuse behaviors that make you feel uncomfortable or threatened. Sexual assault is commonly used to refer to physical acts of sexual violence, such as unwanted fondling, rape, incest, molestation, or unwanted sodomy.   

The power and control wheel is a tool you can use to help identify incidents of harassment or discrimination.   Click on the image for a closer look.

 

The Power and Control Sections read: 

Using Coercion and Threats: 

• Offering workplace benefits in exchange for sexual favors or dates 
• Threatening to terminate the internship/externship/ employment if their demands aren’t met
• Making it clear there is no choice in the matter

 

Intimidation

• Retaliation/ threatening retaliation because of lack of cooperation with demands to send sexual pictures or respond to messages with sexual content
• Threatening to block reporting of sexual assault to managers, police, or other authorities, or forcing the withdrawal of the complaint/report 
• Creating discomfort or anxiety through threatening looks, gestures, and bodily presence
• Moving or breaking things in the office or desk space

 

Emotional Abuse

• Creating workplace gossip about you or using mind games against you
• Ignoring you or denying interactions with you
• Harassing you through digital communications like social media, email, or texts
• Sending unwanted gifts or leaving unwanted items of a sexual nature 

 

Isolation

• Being assigned an office space that has no interaction with anyone else as a punishment or to control you
• Keeping you uninformed or out of the look
• Limiting the scope of your work to focus on the personal needs or errands of your supervisor

 

Minimizing, Denying, and Blaming

• Denying you the opportunity to build relationships with others in the office
• Blaming you for being too attached to your supervisor
• Minimizing your work product or taking credit for it

 

Using Supervisor Privilege

• Overt favoritism that negatively affects the intern
• Manipulating work hours
• Decreasing or increasing pay based on willingness to do what the supervisor says
• Subjective guidelines for your position and job responsibilities
• Excessively monitoring your daily activities either in person or through the use of technology like computers, phones, email, etc.