Foreign trainee workers go unpaid: SAK

The SAK employee rights advisory service for immigrants and Victim Support Finland reminded employers that unpaid internships are only rarely acceptable.

Foreign employees have been contacting Victim Support and the employee rights advisory service for immigrants with concerns about unpaid trainee positions lasting for between two weeks and several months, during which the employer wished to evaluate whether to make an employment contract with the employee, said the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK) in a press release.

Some of these workers were wondering what to do when they were neither hired nor paid for their work already done after the internship ended.

“Employees under contract must be paid at the collective agreement rate,” said the press release quoting Maaret Pulliainen, a specialist at the employee rights advisory service for immigrants as saying.

“While most employers behave honourably in this respect, there are strong indications that others are seeking to evade their obligations in some cases that have been referred to us. These cases suggest an attempt to exploit the ignorance of many foreign workers concerning the ground rules that regulate the world of work in Finland,” said Pulliainen.

The clients of Victim Support have also reported employers who take on a succession of alleged trainees without ever paying wages for the work done.

“New foreign trainees are engaged as equivalent replacements instead of honouring prior promises made to their predecessors who have discharged the unpaid internship effectively,” explained Pia Marttila, senior adviser to Victim Support Finland, adding, “Such labour abuse has all the hallmarks of criminal work discrimination.”

Employers must always consider whether the conditions of unpaid internship have been satisfied, point out the employee rights advisory service for immigrants and Victim Support.

“Unpaid internships are essentially only possible when arranged with a specific educational purpose through an official educational institution or an Employment and Economic Development Office,” Marttila said.