Is it legal for a company to get unpaid labour from you before a job offer is made?

[jasper]

i've been told there have been many changes relating to this law and now i'm confused

[jorian23]

Yes it is legal to volunteer your time.

[bean]

if you did it of your own free will then its legal but if you where forced or preasured in any manner and you can prove it then it isnt legal and they must pay for your time but think about this you work 1 hour make 20 doillars but then ask the government"i have 20 dollars of what?" see what the money people value so much is really worth.

[taryn31]

Of course it is as long as no one is forcing you to do it. If you want to volunteer as an intern to get to know them while they get to know you then you have that right.

One of the only things you come into the world with is your ability to labor and produce and it is up to every individual how he or she wants to use that resource. If that right is taken from you by force or coercion we call it slavery.

If you don't like the idea of working for nothing you have every right to say no.

[cadby]

as-long as they inform you that you will not be paid and you still might not get the job then its your choice
personally unless someone held a gun to my head i would never work for nothing

[devdutta58]

It depends on how they're proposing you get the job. If they're offering an unpaid work placement/internship, with the potential for a paid job at the end of it, then that's fine. If they say you must work a certain number of hours/weeks for free before they will give you a paid job, that's potentially wrong. I'd say a call to Citizens' Advice would be the next step, if you found yourself in the latter situation.

[victorio83]

Perfectly legal. If you are silly enough to agree to work unpaid then they will take the chance.

[kienan]

Perfectly legal. If you are silly enough to agree to work unpaid then they will take the chance.

No, it is fully and ABSOLUTELY ILLEGAL! The many answers came here saying it is fully legal if you agreed on you own to work for a unpaid service, are wrong!

You can volunteer the time only for the registered society for a social service and not to a registered INDUSTRIAL OR COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE WHICH WORKS AS A PROFIT CENTER! Even if a contract made and signed by you it becomes null and void in the court of law and the act is punishable with employer compensating you fully with overriding cost incurred in court!

Even they engage you for unpaid service (which is in fact comes nowhere under any protective law to the employer of a firm) without you signing NO PAPER FOR THAT CONTRACT also they are punishable by law if everything proved otherwise!

There are number of NON GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS (NGOs) who are non profit social organizations for public cause and they too are now paying wages for all who are engaged by collecting donations from the public! Of course a NON-PROFIT organization can avail the unpaid service of a volunteer!

There is a provision for an employer of a company to engage and train the STUDENTS WHO COMES TO THEM FOR A FREE, UNPAID TRAINING under a college management program but here too the students cannot be engaged in the regular manufacturing activities of the company where the value is added in a product by the work of that person which can be challenged in the court of law!