Norway offers attractive salaries to Finnish temps

Restaurant trade professionals work long hours and take long breaks

print this

By Hanna Holopainen
     
      ”I am constantly on the lookout for a job in Finland, but Finnish salaries, they are really low”, says Puumala resident Ari Vilpponen while fly-fishing in the middle of the Lakselva River in the town of Lakselv in the far north of Norway. In May he obtained a permanent job as a cook in the nearby Lakselv Hotel.
      ”I have been doing the rounds of jobs in Norway for six years now. My wife and son live in Finland”, Vilpponen notes.
     
The little town of Lakselv (pop. c. 4,000, including surrounding areas) is suffering from a shortage of hotel and restaurant workers, as are many other places in Norway and in Finland alike.
      Vilpponen, a man in his 50s, chose Norway rather than Finland as the hourly rate paid in the country is EUR 6.00 to 10.00 higher than he could expect to earn back home. In practice it means that a monthly salary could well be double the sum one can earn in Finland doing the same work.
     
The Lakselv Hotel has also hired two Finnish waitresses for the summer. Ivalo residents Marjo Ihalempiä and Mari Lukkari are both in their 40s.
      They were hired to Northern Norway directly from the Finnish resort of Saariselkä in January, when the small hotels in Finnmark, a county in the extreme northeast of Norway, arranged their first recruitment drive across the border in Finland.
     
Finnmark alone would need some 200 skilled workers in the hotel, restaurant and catering sector. This time the Norwegians managed to hire some 30 persons.
      ”I could choose between four jobs”, Ihalempiä reports.
      Lakselv Hotel as well as another Norwegian enterprise have both offered her an onward contract after the summer.
      ”Next I will check out what kind of wages they could offer”, Ihalempiä contemplates.
     
Typically, temps work for several weeks without a break, whereafter they spend their accumulated vacation-time in Finland.
      Ari Vilpponen notes that he toiled more or less nonstop for six straight weeks in early summer. During this time he had only one day off.
      ”I started as a janitor at seven o’clock, and continued as a cook from 11:00 through to the evening shift”, Vilpponen reports. After the working stint he had several weeks’ Midsummer holiday.
     
Local personnel take a different approach and often work short weeks.
      ”Norwegian workers want both a good salary and plenty of free time”, Odd-Jarle Johansen, the manager of Lakselv Hotel complains.
      The cost of living in Norway is higher than that in Finland, but often the employer provides board and lodging at a heavily discounted rate as part of the package.
      The employees of the hotel in Lakselv have to pay EUR 50 per month for accommodation, while their meals cost them only EUR 1.00 a day.
     
Some kilometres away from Lakselv, at Porsanger Vertshus, the employees coming from afar are provided with room and board for free.
      Janne Laukkanen, a 26-year-old Oulu resident, first spent one summer in Norway, but he then went back in order to accept a job as a permanent chef. He works intensively for one month, whereupon he relaxes for another four weeks.
      ”I get by mainly in English here. I have also gradually learned to speak some Norwegian”, Laukkanen says. One can also get along in Swedish.
      Even during the working binges, one needs a rest every now and then. Janne Laukkanen knows this, enjoying an occasional pint, and so do the employees at Lakselv Hotel. The two women read and visit friends, while Ari Vilpponen communes with the fish in the middle of the Lakselva rapids.
     
The competition for chefs is becoming more severe. When the subject of the labour shortage in Finland comes up, cooks and waiters are among the ten most sought-after employees.
      Temps are wanted in Lapland in the autumn (as visitors head up to see the rich fall colours) and in the winter ski season, but for the summer the workers usually move to Southern Finland - and some of them stay down there.
      However, small hotels in Finnmark across the border are about to offer another summer alternative for temps.
      ”We do not wish to steal Finnish employees. The aim is to offer them work when it is quiet in Lapland”, says Odd-Jarle Johansen.
     
Hundreds of Finns are sought for temporary seasonal jobs.
      ”Those kinds of numbers already make a difference, when considering the availability of workforce”, believes Research Manager Heikki Lankinen from the Finnish Hotel and Restaurant Association (FHR).
      At the Tunturi Hotel in Saariselkä, Norway is not regarded as a direct threat. However, the hotel wants to hold on tight to its employees.
      ”Three cooks from our hotel went to work in Finnmark for the summer. We agreed with the local chef de cuisine that they will not stay there longer”, reports Petri Laukkanen, the Tunturi Hotel restaurant manager.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 4.8.2008


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Nurses in Norway have more money to live on (25.4.2006)

Links:
  Finnish Hotel and Restaurant Association
  Finnmark, Norway

HANNA HOLOPAINEN / Helsingin Sanomat