Quad Studios Misclassified, Paid Nothing to Interns, Lawsuit Alleges

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Manhattan’s Quad Recording Studios faces a lawsuit wherein two former workers allege they were misclassified as interns and paid nothing despite performing work that conferred “minimal, if any, educational benefits.” 

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The 27-page proposed class and collective action claims Quad Studios—whose client list includes heavyweights such as Michael Jackson, Tupac, Metallica, Jay-Z, Bob Dylan, John Mayer, Wu-Tang Clan and many others—required the former interns to “clean, run errands, operate elevators, and do maintenance work,” among a variety of other jobs that “displaced the work of paid employees.” Per the suit, unpaid interns are “a crucial part of the labor force” at Quad Studios. 

According to the complaint, the practice of misclassifying employees as “interns” to sidestep having to pay wages “runs afoul of federal and state wage and hour laws.” The lawsuit states that an unpaid internship, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, is lawful only in the context of an educational training program, for which interns “do not perform productive work and the employer derives no benefit.” 

“Employers’ failure to compensate interns for their work, and the prevalence of the practice nationwide, curtails opportunities for employment, fosters class divisions between those who can afford to work for no wage and those who cannot, and indirectly contributes to rising unemployment,” the filing states. 

The case alleges that by misclassifying unpaid interns, Quad Studios denied the individuals the “benefits that the law affords to employees,” such as unemployment and workers’ compensation insurance, Social Security contributions, and, “most crucially, the right to earn a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work.” 

In light of the foregoing, Quad Studios failed to make, keep and preserve accurate records of interns’ actual hours worked each day and week, the lawsuit says. 

The suit looks to cover all persons who have worked as unpaid interns at Quad Studios within the last six years and 228 days. 

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