Natalia Gamba, 28, studied social communication in Colombia and was “looking forward” to starting her professional career as a journalist in Spain. Nothing could be further from the truth. He received a master’s degree and began an internship at a media institution, but from the first moment instability and apathy characterized his experience. He received no pay, no defined duties, and no one told him how to correct his mistakes. “Mentally it was very difficult because they exploited us for 200 euros at most and did not value our work as interns.” Lorenzo Belarte, 29, an Italian, also told a story of “setbacks” after he decided to choose Spain to acquire more specialized skills in the field of geotechnical engineering. After completing a 6-month internship at a company in this field, he made it clear that he would be better off as an intern in his home country. “You learn a lot more,” he insists. He reports that in Spain he is “forced to do more work than he is required to do” and does not feel valued.
These are just some of the stories that led the Ministry of Labor to push ahead with the scholarship scheme, which aims to reverse the precarious situation that continues to characterize many student internships in Spain. The Council of Ministers gave initial approval to the bill last week, almost two and a half years after it was proposed for an agreement with trade unions, which was rejected by employers’ associations and university presidents as well as others. The Socialist Party in the executive branch was also not pleased, arguing that the agreement lacked “technical work” and was “environmentally friendly”.
According to the draft document, which was available to this paper, the document accepted by the PSOE does not significantly change from the document agreed with CC OO and UGT, with only some technical amendments. The draft agreement agreed upon by Yolanda Díaz with worker representatives is based on three pillars. To prevent non-credit scholarships from continuing indefinitely, extracurricular activities will be limited to a maximum of 480 hours, which is half of the previous limit. Companies and public institutions that accept students are obligated to cover the costs of students participating in internships where they do not receive a salary. Violators will be subject to a sanctions regime with fines of up to 225,000 euros.
Natalia Gamba and Anton, 27, are also betting on the fine, but Anton prefers not to reveal his real name for fear of retaliation because he works for the company where he interned. “If more sanctions are imposed, companies will definitely give preferential treatment to them,” he asserts. The energy engineer remembers that two companies related to the field he interned with required him to do “something that either an engineer or a qualified architect should do.” He needed to assess the feasibility of the land on which he planned to install solar panels, and it was “land that would require at least the supervision of a tutor.”
Precarious internships are a phenomenon that is being monitored by inspectors, and as long as the law is not in place, it has not yet led to mass sanctions. According to data provided by the Ministry, inspection bodies carried out 802 measures in this regard in 2024, resulting in the conversion of 220 people into employees. They were “fake interns” who actually carried out the tasks of the staff they belonged to. These conversions were accompanied by a fine of €325,000 for the employer, who also paid €737,900 in unpaid contributions.
In the previous year, 2023, 1,049 actions were taken and 138 scholarship recipients were converted into employees. These proceedings resulted in an inspection fine of €325,000 and a claim for social security contributions of €551,000.
Mireia Olivan, 35, has just started her first university internship. I was supposed to be an intern at a public relations and communications agency in Barcelona, but it only lasted half a day. She claims she was “not even introduced to a tutor” upon her arrival and was “very frustrated” because no one was expecting her. A few months later, she had another negative incident at a company in the cosmetics sector, where she was forced to “fill out documents to justify expenses” that were unrelated to her assigned duties.
parliamentary difficulties
The code, promoted by the ministry and trade unions, has little chance of earning enough green points for parliament’s lighting panels. Jantz’s slamming of the door was formalized last week in consultation with its base, and was finalized on Thursday with an announcement that it would no longer approve the government’s legislation, closing the path to most investitures.
With these two avenues closed, the status of scholarship holders remains stagnant. Even if by some twist of fate Jantz’s position changes, the executive branch is not guaranteed success in this effort. When contacted by this newspaper, PNV said it does not yet have a position on the issue. However, when an agreement was reached with the union in 2023, the union stated: “It has not been discussed with us, let alone agreed. It has not been agreed with the university or the autonomous community.”
At the time, the ERC also voiced its opposition. Currently, Catalan group officials are stressing the importance of forcing companies to remunerate internships, but this option is not being considered in the current project and has been criticized by the ERC. However, they have called for dialogue with the ministry on the project, stressing that progress has already been made on some fronts. Mr. Bildou and Mr. Podemos, who were interviewed by this newspaper, did not disclose their positions.
Labor unions seek support from political parties
The union hopes to persuade these parties to support the project. Belén Girao, general secretary of the UGT Youth Association (RUGE), said that during the negotiation phase (three years ago) both parties seemed to be in favor of the bill: “Even the PP said that they are in favor of it, that they think this is a fundamental document, that this represents a big step forward. We will convince them again. I don’t understand why they say one thing in public and another in private.” CC OO Youth Secretary Pau García said he would meet again with the parliamentary group for the same purpose: “Despite Jantz’s statements, we want them to listen to us and we want PSOE and Smar to fight for this project in parliament.”
Labor estimates the project will be returned to the Council of Ministers for a second reading in about six months, before it is submitted to Parliament. The last bill the government submitted to parliament was to reduce working hours, but it failed to even pass the amendment process.
Gamba admitted that she did not have a good experience as an intern, but asserted that “something has to change” so that future interns at companies are “treated with dignity”. “We are not yet at the point where interns are being exploited, which is why we need to better regulate these numbers,” he said.
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