Company that sold job experience to interns now in hot water

A company which had made a name for itself by selling job experience to interns has been accused of having slave labour.

The allegations surfaced after some workers of Kinteractive Airs Ltd (KAL) took to SOCIAL MEDIA to air their dirty laundry like a bunch of unprofessional children.

The post was followed by KAL's decision to freeze all recruitment after other interns began demanding a "living wage" or "any wage". KAL's decision was adopted by other corporate houses in the country.

"We, the Association of Corporates, have decided to no longer give the luxury of recruitment to inexperienced workers. We had been doing them a favour, but now they want to ask us for money and we cannot have that," Solaiman Khokhon, president of the association, said during a news conference.

To be fast-tracked for employment, interns, or slaves, had been doing demeaning jobs with no pay, or by paying the companies they work for, for years now. One intern, however, kicked the hornet's nest last week by making a SOCIAL MEDIA POST about KAL.

According to the 21-year-old, KAL not only refused to pay him but in fact asked him for Tk 100 every month for various fees.

Contacted, CEO of KAL Kamal Hussain said this was standard industry practice. "Every job requires you to have some experience. And experience doesn't come for free. My entire company's model is to provide experience to kids in exchange for payment. How can they ask me for money??" Kamal said.

Jashimuddin, president of the Worker's Federation, who is not a corporate sell-out at all, said, "Every job requires you to have some experience. And experience doesn't come for free. Some countries' entire model is to provide valuable experience to kids in exchange for a paltry sum. How can the kids then ask for money? Are they not being adequately rewarded?"   The matter was even brought up before the Minister of Labour Kamaluddin. Asked, the minister, who is not being paid by vested interests, said, "Every job you ever want to do requires some experience. The top companies need you to have some experience. And this experience, so magical and seductive, doesn't come for free. Those who offer it ask for money, yes, but not for profit but as a way to teach children how to be resourceful and have good fiscal habits. How can the kids also ask for money? That's how children go bad, when they are given too much money."