Ontario employers want a sit-down meeting with the premier to discuss clarifying the murky rules on unpaid internships — something they say would benefit both interns and the companies that take them on.

The Ontario Workforce Shortage Coalition, which represents more than 100,000 public and private sector employers, asked for the meeting after delivering a report to Premier Kathleen Wynne last week. The report contains a set of recommendations the government should adopt to address the mismatched economy in the province, including the creation of a public education campaign on internship standards.

“Some energy around improving and understanding of what the existing standards are would be a significant advance in dealing with some of the isolated problems around unpaid placements,” said Bill Summers, vice president of research and policy at Colleges Ontario, a member of the coalition.

“There are standards, but they’re not fully understood by employers, nor by students and graduates,” he said. “Some may not even be aware of them.”

Summers says there’s been a marked growth of internships in the last three to four years, though there are no statistics on exactly how many there are in the province.

“I feel there’s a growing profile of this issue in the last six months — especially among employers,” he said.

The coalition, whose members include the Ontario Chamber of Commerce and employs millions of people in the auto parts, food, hotel, mining, aerospace and financial sectors, formed in 2007 to address the mismatched economy that sees both high unemployment and a labour shortage in certain sectors.

One key part of remedying this “jobs without people and people without jobs” problem is encouraging internships both during post-secondary education and afterward, Summers said.

“Work placement is a critical component of getting graduates and students ready for careers and permanent employment,” said Summers, because they allow students to take the general principles they learn in the classroom and tailor them to a specific industry or employer.

Opposition politicians at Queen’s Park and Parliament Hill have called for clearer rules for internships, while some interns have made labour complaints against their employers, demanding backed wages for work they performed.

A recent Star article revealed that interns are not covered by workplace health and safety laws.

Until there’s a real understanding of the rules in place, no proper recommendations can be made on whether they need to be improved, Summers said.

And while communications won’t solve the problem, he said it’s a “logical place to start.”