iHR, Ex-Intern Settle Lawsuit

A former iHeartRadio (then Clear Channel) intern Liane Stephanie Arias has reportedly reached an agreement in principle to settle a lawsuit she brought claiming she should have been paid for her five months of service.

According to InsideRadio, Arias, says her work included gathering data on upcoming community events and working with station street teams.  She was an intern for five months in 2011 for iHR's NYC cluster.

iHeartMedia denied it violated federal and state labor laws when assigning duties to Arias.

This and other cases may have a wider impact on unpaid internships in radio.  What has long been a pretty standard practice at stations could run up against the Fair Labor Standards Act.  It says if an employer would have hired additional staff or made regular employees work longer hours to get the job done, then interns will be viewed as employees and are entitled to compensation.

Arias, who majored in Communications and Psychology at Iona college,  is currently a receptionist for a Manhattan auto showroom, according to her LinkedIn profile.

The settlement was reached in March and an update on the execution of settlement documents is due Friday.