ALWAYS sign a written contract before moving a muscle

[jumalauta]

There is one thing you've got to remember, no matter what type of job you've got: ALWAYS get a written contract before you even start working. That's basically all I have to say. You see, if you work without it, you might have hard time collecting your salary. Here's my experience, I tell it to you just in order to imprint onto your brain the importance of drawing up a written contract

They didn’t made any paper contract with us, but on their web advertisement on http://www.mol.fi, they stated that they offer the pickers a place to live. They just wanted to inveigle people to choose to work for them, they didn’t tell that we need to pay them rent. Only in the end when they paid in cash they told us that they will minus the rent from the original salary (which was very poor). One picker asked them:”this should be told in the beginning, why didn’t you mention about this?” The woman only replied:”we just didn’t.”

What's more, I was ill after the first day of picking. After the rain I got a fever and the period just came. I have serious dysmenorrhea and functional bleeding of the uterus for which I had a doctor’s certificate, and anyway every woman knows that no woman should work in the rainy cold field during the period.

If you have to pay for the rent, will you just tolerate if the boss always directly let herself into your room even without a knock and shouted at you and ransack everything? Anyway, even without having to pay the rent, we had an oral contract that I will have a private room which I share with my husband.

We asked in the first day that how many berries do we need to pick and how many hours do we need to work. They said it’s up to you, of course the more you pick, the more you'll earn as you get your salary according to how many baskets you pick full. So obviously there is no standard. But the female owner was angry and blamed us for picking too little. And after this when we asked how many should we pick, there was still no real answer, just”as much as you can”.

But if everything is up to her own underground standard, how can we meet her requirement?

Then suddenly we were fired. Though another picker worked from 8:00-19-30 and get 14 baskets of strawberries, I once worked from 13:00-15:00 and during that time I got 10 baskets. The hours I couldn’t work I even couldn’t walk. But I still tried my best to work several hours everyday in the rain. And when I was just about to recovered, we got fired. “go at this very moment”. However, the original agreement was 1 month. She lied without blushing:”we don’t need more berry pickers.”And the strawberries were still growing in the field all the time. Further proof of that they still needed more work force was that they had recently asked us to ask our friends to come pick berries too. And after we left, they had only 1 worker left.

They insisted to pay in cash and said: ”Such little money, I don’t bother to deal with any papers” when asked about a certificate for working here nor filling the tax form

I’m very surprised that in the 21th century we have to work like serfs for the landlord or grinded poor workers in those plutocrat’s factories hundreds years ago.

In the end we wanted to ask the woman’s full name. Of course we had the right to know the person’s name who employed us. But she refused because she said she was afraid that we would put this thing on the web. Then the we met the most ruffian display of power you can ever expect in Finland. Some man from the neighbour threw my husband out of the house, insulted and threated us and pushed and shoved him even in the yard to make sure we get out their property. However, he was the only one who went in to ask for her name, and did nothing to behave in a physically threatening way. Only thing he said was when asked for what do you want the name for: “in order to sue you” and “take it easy” when the man started threatening him.

Such a commercial chouse. Such a thick face. Such a cruel heart and evil face. We took a photo of him but he seems had no idea that a mobile could take photos. He just kept on glaring back.

This shouldn’t happen in Finland. However, a lawyer advised us not to do anything, since we only had an oral contract for which there are only the two of us to witness and a fellow worker who had a similar contract. That web ad of theirs disappeared from the web before we could save it.

I do not wish to give details for which farm am I referring to, as those rich owners might sue me for passing on propaganda or something, the lawyer advised not to do so, when I asked. They've already once left nasty comment to a similar thread submitted by my husband which didn't specify the farm.

However, I am not saying picking strawberries is a job no one should do. I do have a friend who actually didn't complain about picking strawberries. Salary is low, however, and it wears out your back, as you have to crouch 8 hours a day. If you use a chair or a stool, it will drastically cut down your speed.

[Bubba Elvis XIV]

Have you informed any kind of authorities?

dunno if it would do anything but I would inform someone.

[jumalauta]

yep, there are rules for strawberry pickers that have not been followed in our case, e.g. in paying the proper wages. So we called this authority who is in charge of this, it's called työsuojelupiiri, every region has its own. So they agree with us and pointed out that in paying the wages, we have a clear case to present to the court. So they guide us get a lawyer, which you btw get free, if you're income is low enough and you have less than 3 000€ on your bank account or something. Don't know how does this works, if you don't have status A residence permit. They also said they'll phone the farm to hear their version of the story. Well, that's the end of the story, the lawyer advised to drop the case, not to sue them. This is because we don't have enough witnesses nor a written contract

[Rick1]

Hi,

If this story is true, do not hesitate to make the company public. You are treated badly while working your butt off.

I know a story from a company that did not follow the rules but was making nice publicity how nice company it was to work for. A not so nice message (still civilized though) on the forum under their message decided to fulfill the demands of an employee in a couple of days. Most of them are like farmers which means if you are not usefull you can buzz off which can be seen in the general non-existing employment protection.

Good luck.