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Thu, 03 Oct, 2013 12:10:09 AM FTimes-STT Report, October 3  File picture of Thai berry pickers. Photo - Lehtikuva. Nine of the Thai berry pickers who had disagreed with the salary offered by a berry company and arrived in Helsinki from Äänekoski on September 25 on Wednesday returned to the country.
The other 41 of the berry picking group is also scheduled to leave Finland for Thailand on October 9 and October 11, said the local representative of the group, Taneli Hämäläinen.
“I think the Thai berry pickers will get relieve through returning to their country,” Hämäläinen told STT, adding that 20 berry pickers, however, are yet to receive their salaries.
They refused to get the salaries as they sensed the amount is much lower than the amount they had agreed earlier.
“The dues of the workers were in between EUR 500 and EUR 2500 that they are yet to receive,” said Hämäläinen, adding that they would suffer serious loss, if the amount remained unpaid as the berry pickers had to take loan for their plane ticket to Finland.
The Labour ministry of Thailand, however, is paying for the return tickets for the berry pickers who disagreed with the salary offered by a berry company and took shelter in Helsinki from Äänekoski on September 25 seeking government intervention to settle the salary dispute.
Twenty of the berry pickers did not receive their salary demanding that the berry company should not deduct any cost from the salary of the employees while calculating the money.
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.
A group of about 50 Thai berry pickers worked in Ber-Ex berry company 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.
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Finland Times
| Tuesday, 30 April, 2024 |
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