Polish Workers
Going Abroad

Finland Looks into Discrimination Against Polish Workers

Warsaw, Poland - June 3, 2008 Finnish-Polish construction company MSB may face work discrimination charges in Finland for paying illegally low salaries to 88 Polish electricians in 2005 and 2006. Finnish prosecutors are now considering the charges, and if they decide to go ahead the case will go before a court in autumn. Four persons are suspected in the case, three of them Finnish and one Polish.

"The employment contracts included conditions less favourable than what was set out in the Finnish collective agreement for electricians [a legally binding nationwide contract between employers and labour unions]," said chief inspector Eero Marttila from the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation, which finished its investigation into the case earlier this year. "It is suspected that Polish workers were paid lower salaries because of their nationality."

The company was a subcontractor in the construction yard of a large shopping centre which was built close to the town of Tampere. According to investigators, the electricians were paid EUR 4-5 per hour, only about a third of the minimum wage set out in the collective agreement and of what Finnish workers in the same yard were paid. Investigators also believe that the company overworked the Poles and misled Finnish authorities about their salaries.

The case was first revealed by Finnish television journalists at the end of 2006. As a result of a settlement with the Finnish electricians' labour union, the company paid out EUR 700,000 of back salaries to the workers.

This article copyright by the New Warsaw Express. You are invited to read more at New Warsaw Express