Pam Magazine: A cold experience in Finland

A news story published in the Pam magazine at pam.fi on 5 February reported that the Kakslauttanen holiday resort has underpaid its employees and delayed in the payment of bonuses. The story revealed that yelling was part of the company's management culture, and that many people in the work community had been threatened with losing their residence permits if they did not do as they were told. The company's employees were also astonished by their living conditions.

After the online news story was published, more former employees of the holiday resort have contacted the magazine. They have recounted similar experiences to those of the people interviewed for the online story. They additionally informed us that employees were required to always be on call for potential duties.

EO Jussi Eiramo denied the accusations of yelling in the online news story. According to him, the problems are caused by the bad behaviour and alcohol use of Finnish employees.

The employment relationships of the company's Finnish and foreign employees alike frequently only last a few months, as they are either fired during the trial period or leave of their own accord. The quick departure causes many difficulties for employees, particularly those who have travelled a long way in search of work.

"The problem with the place is that foreign employees often have difficulties finding other employment in Finland, since the employees of Kakslauttanen speak neither Finnish nor Swedish. Many of them also have their return flights booked for April, for example,” says a Finnish ex-employee. "We were afraid that the manager would take away our visas like he threatened to. We spent a lot of money on visas and plane tickets to get there," a foreign employee writes.

If requested to, PAM has assisted union members in matters such as collecting owed salaries, and all outstanding salaries have been paid according to the knowledge of Pam magazine.

Director of Occupational Safety and Health Päivi Suorsa of the Northern Finland Regional State Administrative Agency (AVI), states that the agency has been paying attention to the resort for at least a decade. It has been inspected several times over the years and various instructions and recommendations have been issued.

But:

"For us to be able to investigate improper treatment, for example, an employee with a valid employment contract would have to give us authorisation."

According to the letter of the law, once an employee's employment relationship has ended, the employee no longer has a working environment for AVI to investigate.

Located in the municipality of Sodankylä in the fells of Saariselkä, Kakslauttanen is an internationally known company. The majority of its staff and customers come from abroad.

Tiina Ritala