I live in Virginia. Last year I worked for a veterinary office that during the hiring process conducted an initial interview and a working interview before offering you the job. This interview consisted of performing about 2-3 hours of work unpaid. The company made you sign a form stating you know and understand the working interview is unpaid prior to performing any work.
At the time I thought this was a normal process and I had just moved from another state and was desperate for a job, so I signed and completed the working interview. I then accepted the job. I only worked there for about 1.5 months because it was a horrible environment filled with money hungry, racist (really just overall discriminatory ass owners and management) and I left the moment I found another job. But today I came across a post on another subreddit that is making me question the legality of the unpaid work interview? Can someone give me some more information on whether this is legal and if not, where and how to report the practice? I don’t even know if I would have a leg to stand on since I signed a paper acknowledging it’s unpaid but I just feel that regardless it’s worth asking and seeing if they found a shitty loophole to get free labor out of someone or if it doesn’t matter ?