An asylum seeker at work

 'There are many of us here who do shifts in different places. But we have no idea about things like the sort of wages that you are supposed to be paid in Finland,' a young Iraqi man says.

On the Kaivokatu Street end of the Helsinki Railway Square, small colourful flags are fluttering in the wind. People are swarming around an oblong tent and someone behind a small counter invites you to help yourself to some tea from a thermos pump pot in a mixture of English and Finnish. An Iraqi man takes a seat inside to shelter from the wind. He has promised to tell us about his experiences in Finland, but he does not want to give his name. The reason for this is his employer, who is also of foreign origin

Although the man has resigned from the employ of his boss, who owns two restaurants in Helsinki, he still does not want to get into his boss's bad books. In addition to a new restaurant sector employer, offering a few shifts a week, he still has some shifts left at his old job for the next couple of weeks. He resigned because he feels that the employer treats employees badly and unfairly.

'The boss docked ten meals from my pay, even though I bought my salad from a shop. A lunch break always knocked off an hour's pay, even if I ate it quickly in five minutes. Late-night customers are slow to leave, but you don't get paid for cleaning outside your hours. On top of that, the boss yells at us.'

A busy evening shift a while back was the final straw.

'I said to the boss, who was yelling and bossing me about, that I'm doing my job but I'm not listening to this.'

The man came to Finland in September 2015 from Baghdad, where he left his parents and siblings. The primary reason for his departure was his work with socially excluded people, some of whom were victims of ISIS. The man explains that he received threatening letters from a corrupt Member of Parliament

He spent his first two months in Finland at a reception centre. As he did not have a passport, he had to wait for the right to work for six months from the point when he submitted his asylum application to the Finnish Immigration Service. Those with ID papers are entitled to work three months after submitting their applications.

The man now has a second asylum application pending, after the first one was rejected. He thinks that many things are going well, but he is thirsty for information.

'Can I ask PAM for help? Or can I join the union?'

According to PAM's Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Office, asylum seekers may join the union, and anyone in need of help can get advice on the membership service number and over the counter at one of the Regional Offices. Everyone who has worked in Finland for six consecutive months can also join an unemployment fund. In other words, they are entitled to receive unemployment allowance. An asylum seeker's right to unemployment allowance would naturally expire if a permanent residence permit were not granted and they would have to leave the country.

The City of Helsinki offers employee rights advisory services for immigrants through the At Work in Finland project, implemented with support from the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK) and other parties. Help is also available for undocumented people. Eve Kyntäjä, SAK immigration expert, explains that the service has been contacted more than a couple of hundred times since it started a little over a year ago. In particular, people have needed advice on questions relating to pay, working hours, work permits and wrongful termination of employment. Many have also asked about the effects of their type of residence permit on their right to work. Those in need of help in service sectors have most commonly worked in facilities and restaurant services.

'All phone calls and e-mail messages are confidential and the express idea is that even undocumented individuals feel that they can contact us. Our services are provided based on the terms of the person who needs help,' Kyntäjä says.

Employee rights advisory service for immigrants

What? Advice from a lawyer on issues relating to employment contracts, pay, discrimination at work, etc. The service is available in English, Finnish and Swedish.
How? By calling 0800 414004 (calls are free of surcharges and you only pay the normal cost of a local call) or by sending an e-mail to workinfinland@sak.fi.
When? Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 9 am to 11 am and from 12 noon to 3 pm.

Further information: The SAK website, including a form for sending questions online and an information package on the Finnish world of work in Arabic, Russian, Spanish, French, Estonian, Polish, Chinese, Thai and Somali, as well as in the above-mentioned service languages. You can also find collective agreements in English on the PAM website, among other things.

Social media: See also facebook.com/atworkinfinland