Shady operators lure Estonian workers with false promises

print this

Agencies offering work in Finland and other countries to Estonian workers have been found to include some that engage in dishonest practices.
      Shady characters in the business operate anonymously and change their telephone numbers often.
      In one case, three Estonian women hired as painters for a project in the Westend district of Espoo found that the reality they faced in Finland was not what they had expected. Their lodging proved to be a room of just four square metres with three mattresses on the floor, and the work permits that they had been promised never materialised.
      The women got the distinct impression that instead of painting, the real reason that they had been recruited was to entertain men. The following morning they took the next bus to Helsinki and returned home.
     
Police in Finland are familiar with the pattern involved in shady recruitment of Estonian labour. A car is usually waiting at the harbour in Helsinki to bring the new workers either to their lodging, or directly to their new place of work.
      However, Finnish police do not know of any cases so far in which an Estonian expecting to work on a building site is required to work as a prostitute, for instance.
      Nevertheless, Kenneth Eriksson of the violent crimes unit of the Helsinki police says that there have been rumours that foreigners recruited to Finland as berry pickers have suddenly faced a change in their job description once they are in the country.
      At the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Markku Ranta-aho of the control unit for illegal foreign labour says that organised criminal gangs are behind much of the undocumented labour offered to Finnish building sites.
      He says that he does not know exactly how great a problem is involved, but a police investigation is underway in four cases.
      His unit gets plenty of tipoffs. "If only we had the time to investigate them all."
     
Ranta-aho knows of cases in which a foreign worker recruited to work in Finland has felt trapped even if work permits and working conditions are in order; many have had to moonlight in order to pay travel expenses to Finland and the agent’s fee.
      The painter women found it quite easy to bail out, but the situation is more difficult for those who have come from more distant countries.
     
Estonia has 87 employment agencies and an unknown number of unlicenced operators. The growing demand for work abroad has proven to be fertile ground for fraudsters.
      The simplest pattern involves taking a fee from the employer, without ever providing the service.
      The agencies often work anonymously and change their telephone numbers often.
      There have also been complaints to the Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs on the activities of some of the licenced companies.
     
When Estonia and nine other countries joined the European Union at the beginning of May this year, Finland and a number of other EU member states imposed a two-year delay before applying the principle of the free movement of labour to the new members.
      However, temp agencies have been found to be a loophole in the law: Finnish employers who recruit Estonians through labour rental agencies can get the benefit of Estonian labour without having to worry about work permits. The Finnish company pays the agency a fee, and the worker is officially the employee of the agency.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Survey: Estonians expect fair deal on Finnish labour market (29.4.2004)
  Young Estonians especially interested in working in Finland (14.4.2004)
  Loophole allows Estonians to work in Finland immediately after EU membership (5.4.2004)

Helsingin Sanomat