Cuts in occupational health and safety hurt supervision of labour conditions of foreign workers

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Officials responsible for monitoring conditions of foreign labour in Finland are concerned about upcoming changes in legislation on foreigners, which would make it easier for citizens of non-EU countries to get residence permits in Finland. The fear is that if the number of residence permits increases, supervision of labour practices will not be able to keep pace.
      Labour unions complain that supervision is already inefficient.
      The new law does not provide for an increase in after-the-fact supervision of occupational health and safety. In fact, personnel is being reduced.
     
The regional state administrative agencies around Finland now have only nine inspectors specialised specifically in the supervision of working conditions and terms of employment of foreign workers. There is plenty of leg work involved, as the inspectors conduct random inspections of workplaces.
      There are also other occupational safety inspectors in Finland who deal with the matters, but all in all, there is considerable pressure to cut costs. About 450 people nationwide are employed in occupational health and safety, and 25 of the posts are to be eliminated as part of the state productivity programme.
      “Funding is tight. We are trying to make cuts in administration, but the reduction also applies to the inspectors”, says director Kaarina Myyri-Partanen of the Regional Administrative Agency of South Finland.
     
A bill before Parliament aims at simplifying and expediting residence permit procedure for employees from outside the EU.
      In the future residence permits will be granted exclusively by the Finnish Immigration Service, which is also expected to enforce the implementation of terms of employment. Labour officials are no longer to be asked if a foreign employee is getting work in a field in which domestic labour is also available.
      The bill states that the competitiveness of Finnish labour is to be secured through “efficient supervision of terms of labour in advance, and after the fact”.
     
The Immigration Service will be getting a key role in advance supervision. It will be provided with resources now in the hands of labour officials. However, no new resources are to be allocated to checking up on the implementation of occupational safety, and inspectors are not set to get any additional authority.
      Kaarina Myyri-Partanen says that occupational safety officials can interfere in a situation if there is a clear suspicion of discrimination at work. However, the authorities can do nothing about an employee who is underpaid if the employee does not take the initiative and draw attention to the matter. She says that not everyone understands this.
      “Labour unions would have an important role in this. In addition, the Immigration Service should make it clear to foreigners who come here what their rights are”, Myyri-Partanen says.
     
The Finnish Construction Union is concerned that the new law could lead to temp agencies bringing in underpaid labour from outside the EU, especially China and India.
      “The construction business already has labour sent from abroad, with no supervision at all”, says the Construction Union’s second chairman Kyösti Suokas.
      “We should get everyone who works in Finland into the tax authorities’ registry to make sure that nobody works here without paying taxes. As long as the tax authorities are passive, nothing will happen.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Concerns about undocumented labour in construction industry (12.4.2010)
  Estonian construction workers heat up emotions in north of Finland (9.4.2010)

Links:
  Finnish Immigration Service

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