Unpaid training, misleading contracts and rising complaints: Unions warn of systemic issues affecting foreign seasonal workers
ust as Lapland prepares for the influx of winter visitors, labour organisations are receiving a growing number of reports from seasonal workers who say they were misled or treated unlawfully. Both the Service Union United PAM and the Finnish Hospitality Association (MaRa) point to a pattern: certain companies in northern Finland bypass labour laws and collective agreements.
Unpaid training periods return: despite clear legislation
According to PAM, dozens of newly hired employees have been required to attend mandatory orientation sessions lasting up to several weeks. These were unpaid and, in some cases, workers were even invoiced for attending. Most affected individuals are foreign workers who have travelled to Finland at their own expense and are unfamiliar with local labour rights.
Henna-Kaisa Turpeinen, PAM’s regional manager for northern Finland, reports: “We know of about 100 employees who have participated in unpaid orientations this autumn. Most of them are of foreign origin.” One example involves a worker from Asia whose contract began in mid-October. She was still told she needed to arrive in Rovaniemi two weeks earlier for training – unpaid, and later billed by the company.
She recalls: “At the time, I thought all employers here acted like this. I only heard later that wages should have been paid for the orientation period.” Her contract also listed an hourly rate far below the sector’s collective agreement.
“Not new, but emerging unusually early this year”
Turpeinen notes that these cases appear every year, despite being clearly illegal. “This is not a new phenomenon, but this autumn has emerged exceptionally early.
Usually, such cases only come to our attention at the end of the season.” Many workers plan their trip to Finland months ahead and arrive expecting a fair process. Two weeks without income is a major financial and emotional shock.
While the Asian employee has since found a new job, her former employer is already known to the union for repeated breaches.
Industry association: “A small minority, but highly problematic”
Timo Lappi, CEO of MaRa, stresses that the broader Lapland tourism industry should not be judged by the behaviour of a few outliers.
He says: “The entire tourism industry in Lapland should not be stigmatised because of companies like this.” Lappi underscores that many companies operating in the region are not members of any employer organisation and do not follow collective agreements.
According to him: “It’s clear why such companies that deliberately break the law don’t want to belong to employers’ groups. They have no intention of following collective agreements, the law or our ethical code.”
He adds that the larger, established companies do follow labour legislation – the issues stem from a small, but damaging minority.
More on the labour legislations issues in Finnish Lapland.
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