Petition To Congress and The President Of The United States
By Bobby Edelman 
“To be delivered to: The United States House of Representatives, The United States Senate, and President Barack Obama
We urge congress to immediately pass federal legislation that removes all mandated wages, taxes and other compensation for any worker that voluntarily engages with a mentor (person or company) to learn a new career skill for up to a maximum of 120 days in a 365 day period. It would require a mutual letter of agreement defining what the value is to each party and the duration. This position could not be a replacement for a employee that was laidoff within the last 90 days.
There are Hundreds of Thousands of unfilled jobs in the United States due to a shortage of skilled workers.There are millions of unemployed older workers who want to learn these new career skills. This program would facilitate the rapid deployment of new career mentorships/apprenticeships without offering workers compensation for a short period of time. Under most of today’s state and federal laws this is impossible.”
What is your reaction to this petition?
The government is in our buisiness enough and can’t run their own. This is a good idea per say but when the government gets through with it, it will be a total train wreck and businesses will find a loophole in it to keep from adding people to their payroll.
Companies do complain that they are getting loses,why can’t one use javan’s energy to make things happen or use a principle “THE POWER OF NOW”when still energetic?
While I think internships are a great way to gain industry knowledge and experience, I have serious concerns about further formalizing these internships and/or mentor arrangements because I’ve already observed how they are used to substitute for paid staff. You need accountability and integrity from the corporate sector (and this absolutely includes the non-profit corporations as well)so that it is mutually beneficial for both parties. I would like to see a compensation-sharing module that would have Unemployment compensation subsidizing a worker who’s learning on the job. This was successfully done by a program in RI where Unemployment and/or Dept. of Aging (for workers over 55) paid a certain amt. for the workers’ salaries with the employers contributing about one dollar per hour towards the pay. This accomplished two things: it provided a job seeker with a PAID employment reference and kept the employers from loading up with too many people where there wouldn’t be a chance to learn anything.
I think internships are a great way to acquire a new job skill. Having done an unpaid internship, I agree very much with the statement that companies are using unpaid internship as a substitute for paid staffers. Let’s face it, in this economy, many unemployed workers are looking for compensation and interships should be paid. I do not see the job market expanding greatly in the near future.