Recognise exploitation at work

Industrial exploitation means, for example, that the employer

pays less salary than what the collective agreement and the law prescribe (underpayment)
does not give an employee days off prescribed by law and the collective labour agreement
requires employees to work too long days without compensation
collects money from the employee as a compensation for the job or the residence permit
prohibits the employee to take sick leave
does not arrange for occupational health service
provides inhumane housing conditions.

Industrial exploitation occurs also in Finland. Often, the victim is an employee with a foreign background. He or she may not know the rules of Finnish working life or fears that he will lose his right of residence.

If you suspect that you are the target of criminal exploitation of workforce, you can contact the police or Victim Support Finland (RIKU). You can contact Victim Support Finland confidentially and get advice on how to proceed. Please contact by e-mail (help@riku.fi) or by phone (including text messages or WhatsApp) to 040 632 9293.

If the exploitation is also associated with limitation of freedom, coercion, pressurising, threatening, forcing to take debt, misleading or violence, it can have the constituent elements of human trafficking. You can contact the assistance system for victims of human trafficking by calling 0295 463 177 (www.ihmiskauppa.fi/en).

Residence permit or certificate because of exploitation by the employer

If you have been the victim of an employer’s exploitation and significant neglect, you can apply for an extension permit or certificate of an extended right to work and change your employer. You must have a residence permit in Finland that includes the right to work. Read more tat the Finnish Immigration Service’s online service.

Police: Reporting an offence

Victim Support Finland

System of assistance for victims of human trafficking