Internship that does not respect the agreement

J

Jean1994

Guest
Jurisdiction
California
Hello,
I am a french student. I, along with 2 other students in my class were supposed to go to San Francisco for an internship in a startup. The agreement was that the employer would pay us the airplane trip as well as lodging in the US. But due to some money problems in the startup we finally did the internship in France. It lasted 13 weeks, In France an internship that lasts more than 8 weeks needs to be paid. But my employer says that it is an american company and does not want to pay me even though he signed an agreement saying that the internship would be in SF and that he would pay us the trip as well as lodging in the US. I would like to know what I can do about that? Legally in the US, since he signed an internship agreement saying the previous things and did not respect that contract, isn't there something to do? I would simply like to obtain my minimum wage.

Another thing that may probably be illegal is the fact that this startup has at most 6 employees and hired 3 unpaid interns in order to do their Android App. Isn't the fact that they are 6 and hired 3 interns a problem?
Can you please tell me what can be done here?

Thank you in advance for your answer !
 
Sorry, same answer you got on the other site:

This forum is for US law only. Your situation deals with French law. You will need to find legal advice applicable to your country. I wish you the best of luck.
 
I would like to know what I can do about that?


Very little, unless you file a lawsuit seeking $10,000 or less in the proper California small claims court.

Even that ploy might be useless, because even if you aren't considered as employees, you're contractors.

If the court sees you as contractors, you're even more exposed, legally.

That would require you to pay your way to the US to litigate the lawsuit.
In some cases, some judges will allow you to appear via a virtual connection, but the defendant can argue against that.

However, a US court may rule or the defendant could argue you have no standing to bring a lawsuit before any US court because you had no ties to the US.

You toiled away, allegedly, in France.

I see no remedy for you mate, even if you get a judgment in France.

You'd have many obstacles to overcome before your French judgment could be perfected in the US, and then there's age old problem of collecting on a judgment, any judgment.
 
Well you knew that they were having money problems from the beginning.... Perhaps there is some agency in France that deals with helping employees collect unpaid wages.
 
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