Foreign labour has travelled from south to north

“The situation changed rapidly this year, particularly in the painting industry. The Finnish Construction Trade Union was contacted by employers and employees reporting that sites were selling so cheaply that the matter warranted investigation.

Officials from the Finnish Construction Trade Union were deployed in early summer to holiday construction sites in Lapland and Oulu area to assess the situation. Issues to be investigated were found at multiple work sites where foreign workers were carrying out painting and plastering work. The sites were mainly located in areas to which employers would send workers on travel assignments due to a shortage of sector-specific labour in the area. In such cases, the employer is responsible for organising accommodation and for paying travel expenses and daily allowances.

The competitive advantage over honest actors was quickly established as payslips showed that the foreign workers had not been paid travel expenses or daily allowances. There were also problems with overly long work days for which no overtime was paid. Companies generally paid around 20–25 per cent less than what is required by the collective agreement, accruing savings in the process.

Most of these cases have now been resolved and outstanding wages have been paid. Collaboration between main contractors and clients helped to resolve issues quickly. But should alarm bells have rung for procurement units when contract tenders suddenly deviated from the norm?

Nowhere in Finland is immune to the grey economy and labour exploitation. Pay attention to changes in regional workforces, and report them to the Finnish Construction Trade Union. Changes don’t always mean exploitation, but it’s better to investigate immediately, and the Finnish Construction Trade Union has the skills and resources to do so.

Ambiguities are easier to manage nowadays.

Painters from Uzbekistan have been working in Finland since the early 2000s. Around 800 Uzbek painters currently work in Finland.

– It was about that time that the Finnish Construction Trade Union was made aware of the earliest cases of exploitation. Now that things have been resolved here in southern Finland and companies have improved their practices, some of the companies have moved their operations north, where there is less regulatory oversight, says senior specialist Markus Ainasoja, from the Finnish Construction Trade Union’s international labour unit.

In the north, where the construction industry is in a much better position than elsewhere in Finland, prices are also on a sounder footing.

– Companies that previously operated in the south of the country are tendering for jobs there at substantially lower rates than local actors. I’ve heard from a relatively reliable source that the price difference can reach up to 20–25 per cent. Then the companies fail to pay the employees daily allowances.

Many medium-sized construction companies from places like Oulu or Rovaniemi are building sites near fells and ski resorts. They don’t necessarily have any prior experience of activity that would indicate labour exploitation. There are subcontracting companies in the painting industry from Finland, Lithuania, and Estonia.

– Up until just a few years ago it was very rare to see foreign labour in the north at all.

What has changed is the Uzbek workers’ trust in the Finnish Construction Trade Union.

– We currently have around five hundred members from Uzbekistan. Years of work and resolving cases has created trust in the union, and the union is often made aware of site ambiguities precisely by these Uzbek members, says Ainasoja.

At one site in Muonio, workers at an Uzbek site wondered why their compatriot at another site was receiving a daily allowance and they weren’t. The Finnish Construction Trade Union handled the case together with the main contractor.

– They are beginning to be aware of their rights in the Finnish labour market.

Another positive change is the new construction industry agreement on the use of foreign labour (UTS) agreed with employers to extend the main contractor’s responsibility to 6 months if there are suspicions of labour exploitation. In other words, the main contractor must pay the wages that the subcontractor fails to pay. This window was previously shorter, and meant that claims for outstanding wages became time-barred.

– It has encouraged main contractors to stop paying subcontractors until the underpayment is resolved.

According to Ainasoja, collaboration with employers and main contractors has gone well with regard to ambiguities that arose during the summer concerning Uzbeks.