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The Employment Unit of Greater Boston Legal Services, New England's oldest nonprofit legal
services organization, is dedicated to helping low-wage workers in the Greater Boston area to
fight exploitation and abuse in the workplace. The Employment Unit provides free legal
representation to individual workers (with a focus on low-wage immigrant workers), does
community-based outreach and legal education, and represents grassroots community-based
organizations in systemic policy campaigns to improve wages, job opportunities, job security and
benefits for low-income working families. The Employment Unit works closely with the
Massachusetts labor movement, often joining forces with the Massachusetts AFL-CIO and
individual unions to advocate for low-wage workers' rights before the state legislature and
administrative agencies.
The Peggy Browning Fund intern would work with seven attorneys and a senior paralegal who make up the Employment Unit staff. The intern would do legal research and writing, which include cases involving denial of unemployment benefits, nonpayment of wages (including minimum wage and overtime claims), employment discrimination, family and medical leave violations, and other problems with working conditions and the exercise of employment related rights. Under the supervision of an Employment Unit staff member, the student would first observe and then directly handle one or more administrative hearings involving an unemployment benefits appeal. Depending on the particular student's language capacity, he or she would also assist with the Employment Unit's weekly intake and outreach in some of the Boston area's low-income immigrant communities. In addition, the student would have an opportunity to work on one or more of the Employment Unit's policy campaigns. Students interested in applying to the Greater Boston Legal Services, Employment Unit for a Peggy Browning Fund internship should submit an application package to:
Monica Halas
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