Berry processing companies must pay pickers’ expenses

Use of foreign labour leasing companies banned on suspicion of human trafficking

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For the first time, companies inviting berry-pickers to Finland will this year have to pay the pickers’ expenses, including travel tickets, accommodation, and working tools.
      Finland’s Minority Ombudsman Johanna Suurpää has made a recommendation to this effect, and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs has included her suggestion in its visa directive, which will be sent to berry processing companies and to Finnish missions abroad.
     
”A financially sound company will have to be able to cover the expenses incurred in order that none of the berry-pickers has to return home indebted after having worked in Finland”, states the newly published directive.
      For example in Thailand, berry picking trips are organised by agents who charge the pickers exorbitant rates for tickets and travel arrangements - a situation that often leads to unreasonable debts.
      It is estimated that last summer one in three berry-pickers, mainly Thais, had incurred debts since they had borrowed money for the trip.
      The Thai newspaper Bangkok Post reported on these problems on its website on January 2nd, saying that last year the Finnish-Thai Association helped some 60 Thais to return home from Finland after they had ended up in dire straits. Helsingin Sanomat has also reported on similar cases (see articles from 2009).
      The berry season itself was good and the pickers got reasonable earnings.
     
Next summer, it will be forbidden to invite berry-pickers who are on the payroll of a foreign labour leasing company. The purpose of the ban is based on suspicion of human trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation.
      ”When it comes to labour leasing, it is no longer clear who is the inviter and what are these workers’ wages and terms of employment”, says Counsellor Vesa Häkkinen from the Unit for Passports and Visas at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
      The ministry is now collecting advance notices from those companies that intend to invite berry-pickers to Finland next summer.
      The number of visas that can be granted under the new terms is the same 2,000 to 3,000 as in the previous years.
     
For several years, many kinds of shortcomings have been found in the conditions and travel arrangements of those seasonal workers who come to Finland with a tourist visa.
      They are treated as entrepreneurs, which means that nobody is looking after their interests and rights - not the occupational safety districts nor the police, notes Johanna Suurpää.
      Since last summer, the Minority Ombudsman has received a large number of complaints relating to 15-hour workdays, the pickers’ accommodation, food, and particularly to the fact that many foreign berry-pickers have ended up in debt.
      Moreover, many Finnish citizens have expressed their concern over how badly people can be treated in Finland.
      In the Minority Ombudsman’s view, foreign berry-pickers must be guaranteed a minimum level of subsistence.
     
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is trying its best to monitor the financial situation of the inviting companies.
      Last year the ministry rejected the invitations sent by a company that had gone into liquidation.
     
Another problem is posed by the misuse of Schengen visas.
      Foreigners with just a tourist visa are allowed to stay in Finland for up to three months, while at the same time, they are entitled to work at berry farms and fur farms, or to pick vegetables.
      They can also pick wild berries and sell them.
      The problem is less one of people exceeding the limits of the sort of work they can or cannot do, and more that some foreigners who have arrived in Finland with just a tourist visa have subsequently vanished into thin air during the summer.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Thai berry-pickers return home after earning year´s salary in Lapland (4.10.2006)
  Happy ending: one unfortunate berry-picker gets a helping hand (27.10.2009)
  A long way for bilberries (13.10.2009)
  First blueberry day exceeds expectations for Thai pickers (7.8.2007)
  Finnish strawberry growers prefer foreign berry pickers (12.6.2007)

Links:
  Bangkok Post 2.1.2010

Helsingin Sanomat