Amendments to the Aliens Act increase risk of labour exploitation

The risk of workers taking illegal paid job offers through employment services or otherwise dubious job offers will increase significantly, says head of the Industrial Union’s Foreign Labour Unit Riikka Vasama concerning the amendments to the Aliens Act.

The Government is proposing a three-month unemployment rule for non-EU workers, reducing the amount of time people who have immigrated to Finland for work would have to find a new job after becoming unemployed. Should they fail to find work within that time, they will lose their residence permit. The period proposed for specialists is six months.

The Industrial Union takes the position that the motion is unjustified and unreasonable. The motion does not reflect the needs of society or workers and is based on a flawed understanding of how markets operate. In addition, the motion conflicts considerably with the goals laid out in the Government Programme. These goals include reducing the exploitation of immigrants, allowing immigrants to integrate into Finnish society through work and defending labour market tests in their current form.

The risk of labour exploitation will increase, and the grey market will flourish

The proposed rule does not allow workers to find a new job. The three-month rule proposed by the Government does not provide workers with enough time. The lack of language skills and networks, limited understanding of Finnish society and the Finnish job searching process and the discrimination experienced in the hiring process significantly increase the time it takes for immigrants to find new employment.

By law, job seekers may not be charged for employment services. The motion significantly increases the risk of workers taking illegal paid job offers through employment services or otherwise dubious job offers in their hurry to find employment. The risk of labour exploitation and grey market activities will grow significantly, despite the Government’s commitment in their own programme to combatting these practices.

In representing workers, the Industrial Union regularly encounters cases in which employers are threatening employees with termination or deportation if they choose to challenge them over underpayment or other breached employment conditions.

“The risk of labour exploitation may well rise as a result of the Government’s motion. This puts the motion at odds with the Government’s own stated goals. Those goals include reducing exploitation, which is something the Industrial Union strongly supports”, says Riikka Vasama.

Labour market tests weakened once again

According to the Government Programme, the Government intends to keep the current labour market test system. However, the motion proposes a new national policy that allows national labour shortages to be declared by decree. It is the Industrial Union’s opinion that, in doing so, the motion allows for labour market tests to be circumvented.

“If the right to work is expanded, sectors with labour shortages need to be defined through regional work permit policies, not through Government decisions at a national scale. In reality, the new national policy increases the risk of labour market tests being circumvented”, Vasama says.

“Sectors with labour shortages need to be defined based on a confirmed and undisputed assessment of the employment situation, and it needs to be done in collaboration with labour market actors,” Vasama concludes.