實習生死亡 金融城加班文化遭聲討

Banks in the City of London are facing calls to overhaul the working culture for younger staff following the death of a 21-year-old intern at Bank of America.

美銀美林(Bank of America Merrill Lynch)一位21歲的實習生死亡，致使人們呼籲倫敦金融城的銀行整頓年輕員工的工作文化。

Moritz Erhardt, an intern at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in London was found dead last week in his shower at his accommodation in east London, it emerged yesterday.

昨日有消息稱，倫敦美銀美林實習生莫里茨•埃哈特(Moritz Erhardt)上週被發現死於他在東倫敦住所的淋浴房內。

A Bank of America spokesman confirmed that the German business studies undergraduate had died, but said the bank had not yet been made aware of the cause of his death. He declined to comment on online reports claiming Mr Erhardt’s death was due to an epileptic fit that followed three nights of working 72 hours in a row.

美銀美林的一位發言人確認，這位德國商科專業本科生已經死亡，但表示銀行尚不清楚他的死因。他拒絕置評網絡上聲稱埃哈特因連續工作72個小時後癲癇發作死亡的說法。

Bankers said working hours for interns are tough and often stretch beyond midnight, but added that it would be unusual for an intern to do two or even three all-nighters. “Analysts and associates have to work like dogs. But interns would not be trusted to do such long working hours as they are seen as too inexperienced,” one banker said.

銀行家表示，實習生工作時間很長，通常超過了午夜，但補充道，一名實習生連續工作兩三個通宵的情況很少。一名銀行家表示：“分析師和助理得像狗一樣工作。但實習生不會得到如此的信任，以至於工作這麼長的時間，因爲他們經驗不足。”

Intern Aware, a charity campaigning for the better treatment of interns, hit out at what it called a 100-hour working culture for students on summer work experience at banks.

要求提高實習生待遇的慈善機構Intern Aware稱之爲“100小時工作文化”，並對這種學生銀行暑期實習中盛行的文化進行了抨擊。

Ben Lyons, the charity’s co-founder, said there needed to be a “change in culture and HR procedures where employees are assessed not on the total number of hours they are able to grind out, but on the quality of work they are able to produce”.

該慈善組織的聯合創始人本•萊昂斯(Ben Lyons)表示，“必須改變文化和人力資源程序，評價員工不應根據他們能夠拼命工作的時間長短，而是看他們的工作質量。”

Mr Erhardt was in the sixth of his seven weeks when he died. He was paid around ￡2,700 a month and had done three other internships at KPMG, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank.

埃哈特要工作7周，死亡時已經工作到了第6周。他每個月的報酬是2700英鎊左右，此前曾在畢馬威(KPMG)、摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)和德意志銀行(Deutsche Bank)做過三次實習。

Bank of America said: “He was popular among his peers and was a highly diligent intern at our company with a promising future. Our first thoughts are with his family and we send our condolences to them.”

美銀美林表示：“他在同輩中很受歡迎，在我們公司是一位非常勤奮的實習生，前途光明。我們的第一反應是聯繫他的家人，送去慰問。”

Chris Roebuck, a visiting professor of leadership at Cass Business School who has held senior HR roles in banks, said that overworking juniors was an increasing problem in the City.

卡斯商學院(Cass Business School)訪問學者克里斯•羅巴克(Chris Roebuck)表示，過勞的年輕人日益成爲倫敦金融城的一個問題。他在數家銀行擔任過高級人力資源管理職務。

“For reasons related to an individual’s ambition or the employment market, people are pretty desperate to get jobs,” he said. “Some employers are exploiting that fact, pushing people past the point where it makes sense for their health or from a business perspective.”

他表示：“由於個人雄心或者就業市場的原因，人們非常渴望抓住工作機會。有些僱主利用這種情況，迫使人們超負荷工作，即使對健康不利，對企業也不合理。”

Mr Roebuck said conditions had worsened following the financial crisis as many institutions had been reducing headcount. But several bankers pointed out that internships are used as recruitment tools.

羅巴克表示，在金融危機之後，情況變本加厲，因爲很多機構一直在裁員。但有幾位銀行家指出，實習被用做招聘工具。

Epilepsy Action, the charity, said about 600,000 people in the UK have the condition, of which about 1,000 die each year from related causes. It said a number of factors can trigger seizures, including a lack of sleep, stress and a lack of food.

慈善機構Epilepsy Action表示，英國約有60萬人患有癲癇，其中每年有1000人死於相關病因。該機構表示，誘發癲癇發作的因素有很多，包括睡眠不足、壓力過大或者飲食不足。