Wood and Allied Workers' Union advises foreign strawberry pickers about their rights

In Finland, the majority of strawberry pickers are foreigners who are ignorant of Finnish collective agreements. This worries the Wood and Allied Workers' Union. It finds the language barrier an extra challenge.

- Very few strawberry pickers are organised and not many of them have knowledge about the rights of strawberry pickers, says Sirpa Save, the union's bargaining officer.

To improve the situation the union, in cooperation with Finnish labour protection authorities, has produced a summary of the central collective rights of strawberry pickers in five languages. The one sheet summary handles pay, annual leave rights, various allowances, insurances, employee's obligations and a few other topics. The sheet, due to be distributed to the foreign strawberry pickers, is published in Finnish, English, Polish, Russian and Estonian.

- We hope that, in the future, the information on minimum regulations would be given to the foreign strawberry pickers at the same time when they get their visas.

The union and the Rural Employer Association have already earlier recommended that, in the early and final stages of the season, the pickers would not be paid per strawberry kilo but would have an hourly wage.

- In the beginning of the season there is not so much to pick up, as the main yield will ripen only a little later, Save explains. -Correspondingly, in the final stage of the season, the amount of berries does not enable pickers to earn moderately if the per kilo pay system is applied.

Strawberry picking is covered by the collective agreement signed by the Wood and Allied Workers' Union and the Rural Employer Association. The agreement is of generally binding character. It means that all employers of strawberry pickers must respect its regulations.

The Wood and Allied Workers' Union is one of the 22 affiliated trade unions of the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions, SAK.