Up to half of foreign construction workers illegally employed

Domestic construction firms offered illegal labour more often than before

print this

Some 5,000 foreigners work illegally in the Finnish construction sector, estimates Esko Auvinen from the Finnish Construction Trade Union. Construction firms also receive offers to supply foreign workers increasingly often, with a part of the workers willing to work illicitly.
      Tom Warelius, the head of construction company Rakennus Oy Wareco, says that his firm has received offers from Estonian companies on a weekly basis over the past year. The correspondence includes faxes where for example painters are offered as employees at exceptionally low wages.
      "Others may fall for these deals, but we throw these offers directly into the garbage", Warelius emphasises. Small subcontractors are the most common employers of illicit labour.
      According to Auvinen, there are 9,000 - 10,000 foreign construction workers in Finland, half of whom do not have a work permit.
     
The Confederation of Finnish Construction Industries (RT), the sector's employer organisation, is more cautious in its estimates. RT Director Tapio Kari believes there are some 2,000 foreigners with work permits in the sector, but he declines to estimate the number of illegal workers.
      Mart (name changed), an Estonian who worked illegally for a few years at Helsinki's large construction sites, believes that one in three or one in four foreign construction workers lack the necessary permits. Mart was employed by a Finnish subcontractor. He had no job contract, and was always paid under the counter in cash.
      "I worked two or three days a week, for 12 hours a day. The pay was good, equal to the Finnish level", Mart says.
      Not all legal foreign workers earn the same living. The Tampere City Hall has been renovated by an Estonian company that paid its workers 3.5 - 6 euros per hour. The wages were raised after the Construction Trade Union intervened.
     
Many foreigners start out illegally but later receive work permits and become legal workers. Illicit workers most often originate from Estonia or Russia, but Latvian, Ukrainian, Polish, and Belorussian construction workers have also been found in Finland.
      According to Markku Ranta-aho, the head of the new National Bureau of Investigation unit that monitors illegal foreign labour, the supply and use of illegal labour is partly in the hands of organised crime in Finland and in Estonia.
      The new unit, which began operations in March, was one reason for Mart's decision to stop working illegally. He now holds a legal position at a new construction company in Helsinki.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Most Finnish candidates for EU Parliament open to more free movement of labour (21.5.2004)

Helsingin Sanomat