Next on “The Steve Wilkos Show” — employers looking for people willing to work themselves to death to get into show business.
Red-faced officials from the daytime show, syndicated by NBC, were forced this week to yank a Craigslist ad looking for freelance production assistants to work a 65-hour week — which is illegal.
“This job is a freelance position and is a six-day-a-week commitment (65+ hours per week),” read the original ad — which ran for about two days before word got out. It quickly vanished from the free classified ad site.
The mistake was in saying the position was for a freelance job rather than a temp, an insider at the show said.
It is illegal under state labor laws to make employees work more than 40 hours without paying overtime.
Freelancers are usually paid a flat rate, while temps are paid on the same hourly basis as regular employees — but without benefits.
The ad — which expected so much of a job candidate willing to start at the bottom for a job in show business — is a sign of hard times in the employment market, especially in glamor fields like TV.
“In the current state of labor relations in the US there’s a huge push to eradicate the line between independent contractors versus employees,” says Pam Moore, head of Labor and Employment at the national law firm McCarter & English. “Unless a person is under 18, there are no ‘hours-per-week’ restrictions.”
A revised ad, once again seeking a production assistant for “Wilkos,” is expected to repost next week, the show said.
“The position is a temporary production assistant who is employed by a third party employment agency,” a show spokesperson said in a prepared statement.
“All of our productions follow all employment laws and guidelines and we treat every employee with fairness and respect.”
“Wilkos,” like other NBC-syndicated talk shows “Jerry Springer,” “Maury” and “Trisha
Goddard,” is shot in Stamford, Conn.
“Like most states, Connecticut has a task force to crack down on the misclassification of employees by independent contractors,” Moore says.