Are interns laborers?

At a job fair, Xiaoding was admitted to a hospital, and the hospital signed an internship contract with her. Xiaoding's classmates have been formally employed by their respective internship units after half a year's internship, but Xiaoding's work has not yet settled. Xiaoding found the director of pharmacy department in the hospital. The director affirmed her work on the spot and told Xiaoding that her application for retention had been submitted, conveying the information that Xiaoding might be hired. So Xiaoding worked harder. Unexpectedly, nearly a year after the internship, another intern came to the department, and Xiaoding was immediately told that it was impossible to be hired. She went to ask the director again. The director said that the hospital was full and there were no vacancies. Xiaoding was also told that although her work in the hospital is nominally an internship, the labor law should be applied in actual work, and the hospital cannot terminate the labor relationship at will, and it is even more illegal for the hospital not to give any salary. However, the hospital believes that the internship contract is not a formal labor contract and there is no labor relationship. As for subsidies, there is no agreement in the internship contract. Lawyer's point of view Xiaoding, a lawyer of Lu Yin from Shanghai Ye Hui Law Firm, must clarify the legal relationship among Xiaoding, the hospital and the school. Judging from the current legal provisions, interns are not laborers in the sense of labor law, but full-time college students. Therefore, there is an educational legal relationship between Xiaoding and the school. This legal relationship began when Xiaoding became a college student and continued until graduation, and the existence of this legal relationship will not be affected by Xiaoding's internship in school. Because Xiaoding is not a laborer, there is no labor relationship between her and the hospital. Because Xiaoding's work in the hospital is based on the internship organized by the school to the hospital, and internship is strictly a part of school education and an extension of classroom teaching; Therefore, the internship relationship between Xiaoding and the hospital is an extension of the legal relationship between Xiaoding and school education, and the hospital is entrusted by the school to provide Xiaoding with internship teaching opportunities. Of course, these are reasonable arrangements under normal circumstances, but reasonable legal arrangements cannot rule out the possibility of abuse. In this case, it is obvious that hospitals should be morally condemned for using labor cheaply in the name of internship, but there is no legal sanction. In this case, the school is hard to blame. Practice is an important part of school teaching practice. Even from the perspective of employment, there is no need to link internships with potential employers, but management should be strengthened in the process, and we should not let ourselves go. First of all, the school should come forward to organize an employer with good credit as an internship unit. The hospital in this case should be excluded from the internship unit. Secondly, the school should come forward and reach an agreement with the internship unit to meet the legal requirements and better internship conditions. Although interns are not laborers, they are still engaged in labor activities during the internship, so they should provide necessary labor protection conditions and pay the interns labor remuneration. In order to avoid the unfairness caused by the differences between schools, the education department can make unified regulations on internship conditions. (Xu Haibo Ding Jiequan)