With over two years of recession, jobs have been closed for many, particularly new college graduates. Many of these eager graduates are willing to work for nothing “Just to get the experience.” Employers want to accommodate friends and neighbors and offer a work experience that will be meaningful on a resume. So a marriage begins, but it will be troubled unless done right.

As Fox Searchlight Productions learned earlier this month, as happy as the recent graduates were when working with Natalie Portman on the movie Black Swan, as soon as the movie wrapped, the students realized that they may have been wronged by not having been paid a wage. Two of the interns brought a class action lawsuit against the production company for minimum wage and overtime compensation.

The interns claimed that they were employees not interns. Where did the production company go wrong (would not any sensible young person crave to be on the set of a major movie)? It was the activities that were given to the graduates while on the set. One of the graduates worked in accounting, reviewing files, running errands, printing, delivering paperwork and mailing materials. The other graduate performed office assistant type duties such as making copies, preparing expense reports, preparing coffee, taking lunch orders, and taking out the trash.

The problem with the arrangement is that the duties assigned were clearly given not for a training or educational purpose. The beneficiary of the work performed was the production company not the workers.