Activation measure may attract seasonal agri workers

Finland's new activation measure may attract more local unemployed people taking part-time agricultural work despite the easier entrance of non-EU seasonal workers, news reports said on Monday.

The Central Organization of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners (MTK) on Monday announced they would open an internet-based recruiting system, as they saw the activation measure as a chance of hiring Finnish agricultural workers.

Juha Marttila, chairman of MTK, told national broadcaster Yle that seasonal agricultural work could help the unemployed in Finland meet the activation requirements.

The activation system introduced from the start of 2018 requires an unemployed person to work at least 18 hours in three months or lose nearly five percent of his or her unemployment benefit.

The MTK labor exchange site will also provide a tool for easy reporting of the required work input to the Finnish National Welfare Agency that controls whether the unemployed have done their duty. It will also assist farmers to withhold tax and pay the social security fees.

Interviewed on Yle, Christer Finne, a farmer from Vaasa area, was somewhat skeptical, however. He underlined that the Finnish workers, if recruited, should have a "correct" attitude as the work in his vegetable fields is demanding. "This is manual work", he said.

Up to now, the need for seasonal workers in Finland has been largely filled by non-EU work permit holders, mainly from Russia and Ukraine. In 2017, nearly 15,000 non-EU seasonal workers entered Finland, amounting to one third of the agricultural jobs in the country.

Finne believed, after all, it would be easy to employ workers from Russia and Ukraine "who want to work in Finland". "Workers who come here must not be 'all thumbs in the field'," Finne said.

Since the beginning of 2018, Finland has reduced bureaucracy in processing the application of non-EU seasonal workers. Besides, the new system also requires a real Finnish employment contract, which will guarantee the legal rights of foreign labor.

One reason for the seasonal agricultural migration has been that the recruits accept the relatively low pay and hard physical work while Finnish applicants will find the situation unpleasant and thus seek other employment or choose unemployment.