Chinese stonemasons win employment pension dispute in Finland

Finnish taxpayers may end up paying migrant workers’ employment pensions

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Five Chinese stonecutters who were working in Kalvola near Hämeenlinna from 2001 to 2003 will get employment pension benefits from Finland.
      A long-standing dispute was resolved by a fresh decision made by the Insurance Court.
     
The decision is exceptional, as the stonemen worked in Finland as temporary workers who had been sent to Finland by a Chinese company.
      ”The decision is fair”, says the stonemen’s lawyer Jussi Kuusiniemi.
      Kuusiniemi believes that the decision could inspire even other foreign workers in a similar position to apply for entitlement to a pension in Finland.
     
A total of 12 Chinese men were working at the Finnish stonemasonry company Iittala Kivijaloste under short-term contracts of various lengths from 2001 to 2003.
      Five of the men later applied for an entitlement to a pension in Finland. The Finnish Centre for Pensions decided in 2006 that Finland’s Employee Pensions Act did not apply to the work done at Kivijaloste by the Chinese stonecutters.
      Two years later the Pension Appeals Board overturned the decision. Now even the Insurance Court has taken the same stand. The decision is to take effect immediately, and it cannot be appealed against.
     
The Finnish Centre for Pensions regards this decision as an individual case.
      ”This cannot lead to any general policy line. This will not have any effect on our instructions”, says Helena Tapio, the head of the Legal Department.
      When it comes to Finland’s Employee Pensions Act, the starting point is that all work has to be insured. Foreign workers have to be insured either in Finland or in their home countries.
      In order to be entitled to an employment pension in Finland, a temporary migrant worker has to apply for such a pension. According to general terms, an employee has to work in Finland at least for two years and it has to be possible to verify his or her earnings.
      As a matter of principle, the Chinese stonemen’s case has been significant for the Finnish Centre for Pensions, according to Tapio.
     
The Finnish earnings-related pension scheme is basically covered by the pension contributions paid by employers and employees.
      The Finnish Centre for Pensions has been worrying that if foreign companies do not pay their contributions to Finland, foreign workers’ earnings-related pensions will have to be covered by the Finnish pension scheme.
      This is precisely what could happen in the case of the Chinese stonemasons.
      The stoneworkers themselves still adamantly believe that their employer was Iittalan Kivijaloste.
      However, the district court and the court of appeals have both regarded the China-based firm China Jiangsu as their employer.
      When Helsingin Sanomat looked into the matter in China in 2006, China Jiangsu declared that they did not know anything about the stoneworkers who had been sent to Finland.
      At present China Jiangsu is expected to pay the pension contributions to Finland. If they are not paid, the payers of the Chinese stonemen’s pensions will eventually be Finnish taxpayers.
     
The Insurance Court states in its decision that it has taken note of the exceptional circumstances in which the stonecutters worked.
      This refers to litigation concerning misuse of foreign labour at Iittalan Kivijaloste. The company was eventually found guilty of for example employment discrimination and was ordered to pay outstanding wages.
      The Insurance Court explained its decision even by the current Constitution, according to which all persons, regardless of their nationality, shall enjoy the same basic human rights.
     
”All work that has been done in Finland should accumulate pension benefits. In brief, it is what equality means in this case”, says Martti Hauvonen, who acts as a chairman in appeals matters at the Insurance Court.


See also:
  Inspectors find that Finnish employers often violate basic rights of foreign employees (21.8.2006)

Links:
  Työeläke.fi
  Finnish Centre for Pensions
  Insurance Court

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