Finland’s Ministry of Employment and the Economy has established an email help service for berry pickers disgruntled with their employers. The service will offer advice on employment issues to pickers, who do back-breaking work few Finns are willing to contemplate.
“Recent years’ experiences show that this service is needed,” said Pirjo Juntunen of the North Ostrobothnia employment office, which will be running the service.
Last year some fifty Thai berry pickers were involved in a dispute with the company that invited them to Finland. At its core the dispute centred on whether they were workers with an employee-employer relationship with the berry companies, or whether they were independent entrepreneurs who sold the fruit to whoever they liked.
After enlisting the help of the blue-collar trade union confederation SAK, the pickers took the case to the Labour Council—but lost. The Council ruled that the pickers did not have an employment relationship and could not expect protections afforded to workers under Finland’s sector-specific system of labour agreements.
Translation possible
The Ministry has nevertheless tightened the visa process for berry pickers and the firms that invite them to Finland. A ministry statement in May said that Finland’s embassy in Bangkok has limited the number of visas available to firms that have ‘shown negative aspects’ in recent years. The email help service is another branch of the ministry’s approach—but it will only be available in Finnish, Swedish and English.
“If necessary we can buy translation services,” said Juntunen, who added that a phone helpline would be set up in mid-August.
Smaller numbers of berry pickers mean a better chance of a good harvest for those that remain. Under Finland’s everyman’s right the fruits can be picked by whoever can walk into the forest and collect them, but the easily accessible plants are often stripped first.
While the berry companies buy all the berries picked, pickers are not guaranteed a minimum income and often have incurred large debts to finance their trips.
The email assistance service is reachable at [email protected].