This month a bill has been introduced to the House of Lords to make changes to unpaid work experience.

If work experience is undertaken with the same employer for a continuous or non-continuous period of more than 4 weeks, workers over the compulsory school age will be eligible for the National Minimum Wage when undertaking this work experience.

These proposed changes can be found in the “Unpaid Work Experience (Prohibition) Bill” and propose to amend the National Minimum Wage Act 1998.

The bill has received its first House of Lords reading on 7th June and is sponsored by Lord Holmes of Richmond. When the bill has been passed it will extend to the whole of the UK.

For the avoidance of doubt, this legislation is yet to be binding on UK employers.