JHL: Labour exploitation has to be rooted out
Trade Union JHL demands that labour exploitation must never be profitable business. The risk of getting caught has to be real, and the penalties have to be substantial. Both employees and honest employers benefit from tackling exploitation more firmly because the current situation fosters unfair competition and even human rights violations.
Chief Executive Officer of the Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors JHL, Mari Keturi, proposes concrete actions for strengthening the position of employees.
“Let’s criminalise underpayment. Currently, in practice the only thing that results from underpayment is the obligation to pay the money that should have been paid in the first place. This is not enough. Finland should follow the lead of Norway and add wage theft and aggravated wage theft into the Criminal Code so that trampling on employees’ rights results into a real penalty. It’s about time that Finland introduces similar regulation, where underpayment is equated with other crimes against property.”
“Let’s give trade unions right of action. All employees aren’t able to take their matter to court by themselves. Trade unions’ right of action would strengthen employees’ legal protection and ensure that they do not have to encounter abuse alone.”
Keturi is worried about how contracting chains offer a hiding place for shirking responsibility.
“Contractor’s obligation has to go all the way though the contracting chain so that the employees’ rights cannot get lost somewhere in the chain. This means that everyone in the chain – whether a subcontractor, provider of temporary workforce, or any other actor that uses labour – is obligated to ensure that employees are guaranteed lawful terms and conditions of employment, appropriate treatment and a fair pay.”
“Without a clear and comprehensive structure of responsibilities, there is a risk that employees’ rights are not supervised, and that is an opportunity for labour exploitation and growth of shadow economy.
Keturi says that the current Government of Finland is on the wrong track in this matter.
“Instead of tackling underpayment and exploitation, the Government is on an ideological crusade against trade unions and erodes the rules of working life. This is a dangerous direction: it weakens employees’ protection and increases the risk of exploitation – and at the same time makes it hard for honest Finnish employers to succeed in competition. The actions that the Government has chosen do not eliminate the problems – they aggravate them.”
Chief Executive Officer Keturi finds the silence among the Finnish business life concerning.
“We should ask: why are business life interest organisations quiet now? Players that are often active are now like ostriches with their heads buried in the sand. Rooting out shadow economy would be in their interests. Or is it because the actually effective measures would not serve the interests of those who wrongly benefit from the situation?”
More information:
Mari Keturi, JHL, Chief Executive Officer, 050 461 9315