Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen face class-action lawsuit from overworked interns

Celebrity entrepreneurs and former child stars Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are facing a class action lawsuit filed by former interns who claim they were not paid and were treated unfairly when they worked for the twins' Dualstar Entertainment Group.

PageSix reports the lawsuit was filed in the Manhattan Supreme Court and cites "wage theft" affecting about 40 past and present interns. Shahista Lalani, the lead plaintiff, said she was made to do menial tasks and even personal errands for the head technical designer of The Row, the twins' fashion label, from May to September 2012. She also said that her workload was equivalent to that of three interns.

"She was very demanding. I was talking to her all day, all night. Emails at nighttime for the next day, like 10 p.m. at night," noted the Parsons School of Design graduate. She added that she would do 50-hour work weeks but did not get paid at all. This in addition to the poor treatment by higher staff. Lalani recounted that other interns have cried while photocopying or doing coffee runs.

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), it is all right for for-profit companies to not pay interns as long as the activity is for the intern's benefit or built within an educational setting. A similar case was filed in 2011 against Fox Searchlight, when interns working for the production of the film "Black Swan" demanded payment for their work, according to Deadline. The Federal District Court ruled that the studio benefited from the interns and ordered compensation. It also noted that companies simply can't get free labor from interns if they don't give them any career development or educational value. In 2014, New York publisher Conde Nast paid a total of US$5.8 million (AU$7.9 million) to over 7,000 interns after the court sided with the workers who cried underpayment, according to a report from The Guardian.

Dualstar representative Annett Wolf issued a statement to USA Today saying that the company is committed to treating all its employees fairly. She also said that the allegations against the Olsens' firm were groundless.

"Dualstar will vigorously defend itself against (the) plaintiff's claims in court, not before the media. Dualstar is confident that once the true facts of this case are revealed, the lawsuit will be dismissed in its entirety," she noted.

Contact the writer of this story at feedback@ibtimes.com.au or let us know what you think below.