SAK’s employment advisory service for immigrants receives frequent inquiries about outstanding wages
Service is available in Finnish or English. Photo: GettyImages.
In 2018 SAK’s employment advisory service for immigrants was contacted a total of 449 times, especially from workers in the facility services sector and the hospitality sector. Many of the reasons for getting in touch has to do with pay or outstanding pay.
The employment advisory service for immigrants has been in operation since 2016. The service is free of charge and is available to all immigrants and foreign workers working in Finland. SAK’s advisory service was launched as part of the joint project Working in Finland, the idea of which was to develop advisory services to promote integration and employment among immigrants.
At the start of this year SAK decided, together with 7 other SAK-affiliated unions, including PAM, to continue the service up to 2020.
Advice is available by phone on 0800 414 004 Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 9–11 a.m. and 12–15 p.m. or by email at workinfinland@sak.fi. Advice is available in Finnish or English. Read more here.
Most inquiries to the advisory service are about pay.
”For example, there are cases where an employer has told an employee that they have to work unpaid during their trial period, and if they do well, they will be hired. After the unpaid trial period the person is not hired and doesn’t get the pay that is due”, says Maaret Pullainen, employment advice specialist at SAK.
Reasons for getting in touch with SAK’s employment advisory service last year:
• around 41% had to do with pay or outstanding pay claims (rates of pay, how to claim back pay from an employer, unpaid trial period to test employee’s suitability for the job)
• around 11% had to do with employment contract terms and conditions (not understanding employment contract or wanting to get an outsider to check it before signing, employer’s right to change terms and conditions unilaterally)
• around 20% had to do with terminating an employment contract (reasons for dismissal not given or statutory dismissal procedure not complied with, right to terminate employment contract and length of notice period)
Source: SAK employment advisory service for immigrants Maaret Pullainen.
