Finnish plumber seeks employment
By Matti Huuskonen
Sainey Balajo, 33, a qualified heating, plumbing, and air conditioning mechanic, shows his school certificate.
The paper is dated in June, when he completed his studies at Helsingin tekniikan alan oppilaitos ("Helsinki Educational Institute for the Technical Field"). He was at the top of his class, getting a scholarship, and a report showing excellent grades in all but one subject, where the grade was a mere "good".
A diploma from the institute's Vallila unit has been highly coveted in recent years. There is a shortage of qualified professionals in the HEAC field, and teacher Pekka Tuominen says that all of those on the same course as Balajo who have applied for jobs have received them.
All, that is, except Sainey Balajo.
Not only that, Sauli Sulkava, head of installation at YIT, which is, perhaps the most important employer of qualified plumbers in Finland, would gladly hire Balajo immediately, but is unable to do so.
So what is going on here?
Let's go back ten years to the small West African country of Gambia, to Balajo's native village of New Jeshwang.
He gets a chance to practice with his friend. The men install plumbing - "usually just cold water pipes", in New Jeshwang, and in the capital Banjuli.
The company's name is Sam's and wages are paid somewhat irregularly.
In 1998 Balajo moves to Britain, and two years later, to Finland, where he had fallen in love during a holiday visit.
Sainey and Tarja Balajo are married in August 2000. The family of four, which includes two children, Jemina and Binta, get a rental apartment in the suburb of Vuosaari in the east of Helsinki.
Balajo begins his immigrant's integration process. He practices Finnish at the Caisa Culture Centre Helsinki, and studies his trade in the district of Vallila.
His education includes both classroom work and on-the-job training. In the first year he gets a trainee's position at Kvaerner Masa-Yards, and in the last three years, at YIT.
In the spring and summer of 2004 Balajo installs plumbing in Porolahti School in the Roihuvuori neighbourhood of Helsinki, first as a YIT trainee, and later as a summer worker.
In Porolahti he is supervised by Tero Kinnunen, an experienced second-generation plumber.
"He was eager to take the initiative, and if there were questions to ask, he would ask them. We thought things out together, and then he did them. There was never any need to fix mistakes afterward", Kinnunen recalls.
Balajo is a devout Muslim, and his faith showed at work; there were no morning hangovers or unexplained absences. Balajo timed his only moment of daily prayer so that it would coincide with the coffee break.
"He was inconspicuous about it. He didn't hide it, but he didn't emphasise it either. Nobody laughed."
There was some good-natured banter surrounding the colour of his skin; Balajo was called the liquorice man, and Kinnunen was the Eskimo.
"When he finished his traineeship, he bought a cake for the whole group", Kinnunen recalls.
In the spring of 2005 Balajo is refurbishing apartments at his last trainee job with YIT.
There are seven plumbers at the site, but there is enough work only for four. Nonetheless, in late May - a week before graduation - Balajo is still confident that he will be able to get work from the big company - if not a permanent position, then at least a summer job. This made the subsequent disappointment all the more bitter.
Others who know him are also surprised.
"A very unfortunate case", says Jouni Kivirinne, the head of Balajo's group at his school.
An angry Tarja Balajo calls the Labour Court to ask if an oral promise of summer work is as valid as a signed contract.
Disappointed, the new HEAC professional takes his diploma and starts to look for work.
Vacancies are constantly appearing on the web site of the Labour Office.
And no wonder. In the spring, a survey by the Confederation of Finnish Industry showed that nearly half of all companies in the field had difficulties recruiting qualified personnel.
There are two successes.
First, Tarja Balajo's work place goes under refurbishment. The contractor, the Helsinki company Rakennus Tuse needs an assistant, and Sainey Balajo gets a gig lasting a week and a half.
In July, Balajo is granted Finnish citizenship. In August, a bona-fide Finn - albeit not a native-born one - works as a guard at the Helsinki World Championships in Athletics.
In October 2005 at the headquarters of YIT Building Systems in Helsinki, Balajo sits across the table from Sauli Sulkava
He says that in the spring, he was absolutely certain that he could hire him.
However, both men were disappointed. In the Uusimaa region, YIT has a pool of just under 200 HEAC professionals, who can be shifted from one site to another.
In May, just as Balajo was to have signed a contract, a number of YIT building sites in Uusimaa shut down, and no new ones are available.
Suddenly Sulkava has a number of idle professionals on his hands, and the rules that had been agreed upon with the trade union were clear: priority must be given to the old employees.
"As soon as work becomes available, I will hire Sainey. He will be an excellent mechanic", Sulkava says, and recommends him to others as well.
Balajo has his sights on the beginning of next year - either work at YIT, some other company, or a move to Britain.
"It would be a godsend for the British people, to get a good pipe man like him", says Balajo's teacher Jouni Kivirinne.
Helsingin Sanomat will be following up on Sainey Balajo's success at job-seeking in the coming weeks.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 16.10.2005
MATTI HUUSKONEN / Helsingin Sanomat
matti.huuskonen@hs.fi
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| 18.10.2005 - THIS WEEK |
 Finnish plumber seeks employment |
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