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New legislation
restricts abuse of foreign labour
and expansion of grey economy
Helsinki (27.04.2006 - Juhani Artto) As of May 1 this year Finland will no
longer restrict the free movement of labour from the new Member States of the EU. The
Finnish trade union organisations fully endorse this policy.
In Finland, the past two years of restricted entry rights have been put to good use by
allowing time for control mechanisms against the grey economy and abuse of foreign labour
to be put firmly in place. The core of this new legislation will be the subscriber
liability law. Labour market parties and the Finnish government have now reached an
agreement on what exactly this should cover.
Companies will now have more obligations to investigate their
subcontractors' way of handling taxation and social security payments and the working
conditions of subcontractor employees. (For more detailed information: New subscriber
liability law encourages fairness at work, SAK 16.03.2006)
New legislation on taxation of foreign labour sent to Finland by agencies, based outside
of Finland, is also underway. At the moment, under current Finnish legislation, Finland
cannot tax foreign agency labour that works in Finland for a period of less than six
months. However, treaties with other Nordic countries and the Baltic States allow Finland
to tax foreign agency labour for even short periods of work in Finland.
The Finnish government wants to tighten control over foreign agency labour. In practise,
the government will require all foreign employees coming from other EU Member States for
work in Finland to register at an employment bureau
within two weeks of arrival.
Since February 1 construction workers have had to wear visible identifiers. This makes it
easier for the authorities and trade unions to know what is going on at construction sites
(For more detailed information: A new weapon against the grey economy: Construction workers have to
wear visible identifiers, Trade Union News from Finland 07.02.2006)
Public resources to make monitoring of working life more effective have been made
available. However, the trade union movement is critical of the meagre resources that have
been deployed in this effort. The Construction
Workers' Union have been the most vocal in their criticism. The reason for this is very
clear: thousands of its rank and file members are unemployed, while simultaneously,
thousands of foreign workers, mainly from Estonia, work illegally at Finnish construction
sites. (Read more: Many
construction companies using illegal labour, Yle24 29.03.2006) |
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