Finland Times

 

Left Alliance MP Jari Myllykoski was speaking when the Thai berry pickers went parliament to place their demand on Wednesday. Photo - Lehtikuva

The Thai berry pickers who disagreed with the salary offered by a berry company and took shelter in Helsinki from Äänekoski on Wednesday sought government intervention to settle the salary dispute.

 

The berry pickers said that the dispute regarding the salary of 30 people had already been settled but they would not leave for Thailand until settling the salary of the remaining 20 workers.

 

They submitted a letter to the government on Wednesday and requested to consider the matter from the perspective of foreign employees under the Finnish law.

 

They also demanded that the berry company should not deduct any cost from the salary of the employees while calculating the money.

 

The authority also should consider the economic risk factor of the foreign workers in this regard, demanded the berry pickers.

 

Pointing out their experiences in picking berry in Finland, the Thai workers said that the amount of picking per kilogram berry was lower this year compared to the previous year.

 

Terming the situation of the berry workers as unstable, the president of Natural Product Industry Association, Vernu Vasunta said that the berry pickers did not know the exact amount for per kilogram when they arrived here resulting into dispute between the employer and the employees.

 

“A number of factors are related to the price of berry and so the price could be affected on various grounds,” Vasunta told STT, adding that some time it is difficult to predict the salary beforehand.

 

Earlier, the berry pickers alleged that they were given misleading information about their earning by picking berries in Finland.

 

Berry company Ber-Ex said that some of the berry pickers had accepted the salary but others declined as they thought the amount was low.

 

Earlier, a group of about 50 Thai berry pickers working in Ber-Ex at Saarijärvi area in Eastern Finland filed a criminal case with the police against their employer.

 

They claimed that they were the victims of human trafficking, but allegation was rejected by the prosecutor.