Case study
Max has twenty years of work experience in the construction industry from another EU country. A friend encouraged him to come work in Finland. Hoping for better pay, Max decided to make the move. In Finland, he did not receive a written employment contract from his employer; instead, the job was agreed upon verbally. After some time, the employer stopped paying wages to the workers due to financial difficulties in the company. Realizing that he would no longer be paid, Max contacted a municipal guidance service to speak with a staff member fluent in his native language.
With the information he received, he decided to stop working, registered as a jobseeker, and joined a trade union.
Employment services directed Max to integration training, as he spoke very little Finnish. At the construction site, things had been handled in his native language or with the help of a coworker who interpreted. Max had thought he would never receive the wages that had gone unpaid. Talking to and messaging his boss hadn’t helped. The boss informed him that the company was going bankrupt and there was no money.
During the integration training, Max learned that, for example, the occupational safety and health authority (työsuojeluviranomainen) could provide free advice on employment-related issues. The phone information service was available only in Finnish or English, so an interpreter was arranged for Max.
Max called the occupational safety and health authority’s telephone information service with the help of an interpreter. Encouraged by the advice he received, Max returned to the native-language advisor, and together they managed to submit a wage guarantee application to the Development and Administrative Services Centre (KEHA Centre) within the deadline. The missing wages were paid by the KEHA Centre, which later recovered the money from the employer’s bankruptcy estate.
