Finnish Employers Cheat Foreign Employees

Inspectors specialising in monitoring working conditions of immigrant workers have been visiting workplaces for the past year in Finland. They have found shortcomings in the implementation of labour regulations at about half of workplaces where foreigners are employed.
The most severe problems were in pay and working hours. Foreign workers were often paid less than native Finns for the same jobs, and employers often neglected to compensate for overtime.
Workers’ rights are most frequently violated in fields where short-term contracts and sub-contracting are common. As such, inspectors were focused on construction, the metal industry, cleaning and gastronomy businesses.
Although changes in legislation have been made in the monitoring of foreign labour, more changes are to come. Jaakko Itäkannas, a spokesman for the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health says, “ The amount of foreign labour will grow in any case. With the reforms we want to avoid the kind of two-tier labour market that exists in Germany”.
Excerpted from: Helsingin Sanomat

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