Finland needs foreign experts to plug a worsening skills gap. At the same time many immigrants employed by Finnish start-ups are being treated badly. by Elina Lappalainen HS
Finland needs foreign experts to plug a worsening skills gap. At the same time many immigrants employed by Finnish start-ups are being treated badly. by Elina Lappalainen HS
6 comments
Yah this cases seems very bad. Luckily my experience of moving to Finland been great so far. I guess depends on a field, I’m a software engineer, so I got lucky.
This seems to constantly make the headlines here on this reddit. I’m not complaining that much this time because at least there is a new editorial piece to go with it.
Weird article. At the same time it’s complaining that increasing number of companies are struggling to find skilled workers and have to use non-native workers, but the companies mentioned expect you to accept illegal contracts and work for 500€/month? I wonder why no skilled professionals want to work for them…
Are the Rens founders Finnish-Vietnamese or do they have immigrant background themselves? I didn’t find it in the text anywhere (or maybe I missed it?) except a vague “they are familiar with Migri procedures”. Because if they are immigrants themselves it adds an extra layer of awfulness to this, as they were targeting their own group to exploit because they know the struggles of the community. Eg. all their job offers always say “no Finnish required” in their headlines, and that’s usually the biggest obstacle to finding a job for foreign nationals.
Using a throwaway because don’t want this to be attached to my actual account.
I do not attribute these problems solely happening to immigrants, and as one person has mentioned, this has happened to Finns, too. I have mostly heard of problems happening with startups, and that’s of course because they have limited money. As more immigrants come to Finland, as finding jobs can be exceptionally hard, and as the TE Office sometimes pushes the unemployed to be entrepreneurs, more of these problems will come.
Finland’s system is not very well setup for worker protections. There exists an Occupational Health and Safety administration, but they are mostly useless when it comes to salary issues. I know this from my own experiences with startups. “Here is a form you can send to request your salary” is all I have been told. Pay security? That is only if the company is bankrupt. Workers in startups understand financial difficulties and will try to help by saying “okay, you can pay this later.” People do that because everything is friendly and no one wants to ruin personal or professional relationships. When trouble arises, government offices are not very helpful. Unions exist, but people seem surprised when such a problem happens like “that’s just not how it happens in Finland.”
In talking to one official, I told about some things that the owner of the company did. The official stated, “Those can’t happen as they are illegal.” I provided evidence and asked what could be done. The person didn’t have any reply as to what could be done. This was a person who should be familiar with such things.
This has scared me away from working with startups. The risk is too great.
You know how start-up founders often say that their company definitely doesn’t need HR, and it’s implied HR is inherently evil? And if they do hire someone, it’s to set up awesome parties and whatnot.
Well, this is the reason why they need HR. Preferably someone who has at least a basic understanding of the employment law, and what can and can’t be done. It’s completely possible that the founders here didn’t realize they were doing anything wrong. Doesn’t mean they’re off the hook. Ignorance of the legislation is not an excuse.