Impact has warned that widespread introduction of unpaid graduate internships in the health service could pose unnecessary risk for patients and exploit vulnerable young workers.
At its conference in Tralee, the union’s health and welfare division called for a “balanced approach” which would provide young graduates with relevant experience through “genuine structured internships”.
Social worker and member of the union’s health executive Adriennne Byrne said the union had already come across difficulties relating to unpaid graduate placements.
“Impact has already dealt with a case in Cork where a business student was taken on for three months unpaid work by the HSE in the South, who was assigned to covert the work of a clerical officer on maternity leave,” she said.
Ms Byrnre said the work was not relevant to the graduate’s business degree, so Impact objected.
“It was a shameless exploiting of the graduate involved – no pay, no relevant experience, just free labour,” she said.