Berry pickers from Thailand refuse to leave Finland

[webfact]

Berry pickers from Thailand refuse to leave Finland
BY SINE NEUCHS THOMSEN

BANGKOK: -- 25 berry pickers from Thailand refused to board their flight back home this weekend, Finnish Yle reported.

A group of berry pickers in Central Finland issued in a press release on Saturday 14 September that they would not leave Finland. According to their employer the berry company Ber-Ex Oy the group should have forwarded their flight tickets due to visa issues. Despite the change of the date, they would not leave Finland.

In the release, the berry pickers claim that Ber-Ex is trying to put pressure on them as well as denying them their legal rights and compensations. According to Yle the group also said that actions by the company have violated their human dignity.

According to Ber-Ex CEO Kari Jansa the company was obliged to move forward the berry pickers’ return flights, as they were in infringement of visa legislation. The CEO said the Thai workers were in Finland on berry picking visas, and as they now refused to pick berries, his company was obliged to help get them back home.

Read the full article here.

Source: http://scandasia.com/berry-pickers-thailand-refuse-leave-finland/

-- ScandAsia 2013-09-16

[CelticBhoy]

Give them another couple of months there and the

temperature will be in the minuses. See how many

want to stay then.

[MacWalen]

Finland is a nice country. A regular worker has a much higher standard of living than in Thailand so quite obvious that many would not like to return.

[Zolt]

Finland is a nice country. A regular worker has a much higher standard of living than in Thailand so quite obvious that many would not like to return.

There seems to be more to it than that. Their employer must have tried to short them on something, so they started a protest, and now they're being shifted back home as their visas are terminated. Standard business tactic: no need to pay the last couple months of wages for migrant workers, as they'll be kicked out of the country at the end of their visa anyway and can't come back to pester you.

[Credo]

All those years of nose picking has paid off in a useful career.

I hope they get their visa stuff sorted out and return safely to Thailand.

[JoeThePoster]

I'm shocked they don't want to come home and enjoy the 300 baht/day wage guaranteed by their beloved govt.

[h90]

Give them another couple of months there and the

temperature will be in the minuses. See how many

want to stay then.

Now is September.....Lets talk again mid November.

[CelticBhoy]

Give them another couple of months there and the

temperature will be in the minuses. See how many

want to stay then.

Now is September.....Lets talk again mid November.

I think that's what I said there old fella.

[itchybum]

I don't blame them...spooks on planes n all.

[Guest]

The Thai pickers were not employed by the company and therefore were not getting paid to do the work. Instead they were being paid for the berries they pick. This is tax-free income in Finland.

The Thai pickers were complaining that they were not taken good care and the locations where they were picking berries were not good enough for them to make a good money. They have also taken loans in Thailand with 5%/month interest rate. This is becoming an burden.

Then very leftist (ex communist party) member of parliament and few others who started to say that bringing Thais to do the work is almost like human trafficking.

After this the group of Thais stopped to work and the company who was managing the operation got them tickets back home. Thais refused after being told by the 'supporters' not to. It's all big mess now.

Finns consider all people equal and have low tolerance of companies who are exploiting low level workers. On other countries the Thais would have already been kicked out already.

These are the things I picked up from Finnish medias. I guess the truth of all of this will come out someday.. and Finland taxpayers will probably pay the show.

[jackr]

Bung them in Fin immigration lockup and then blacklist them for 99 years... Thai stylie.

[Mampara]

Just as said before u can take the people out of the village, but u can not take the village out of them.

[A1Str8]

So what does it matter if they want to stay or not? Make them leave.

Sent from one of my devices using the internet

[Patje]

Give them another couple of months there and the

temperature will be in the minuses. See how many

want to stay then.

I agree, when there are no more berry but snow, they will beg to go home !!!

[soi41]

Maybe the "labouractivist-hero" Mr Andy Hall, working for Finnwatch, should start to look closer to home instead of making a fool of himself in SE Asia !

Btw. Stories simular to the OP pops up every year, now we are just waiting for the 2014 version.

[FritsSikkink]

Finland is a nice country. A regular worker has a much higher standard of living than in Thailand so quite obvious that many would not like to return.

They don't want to return because there is a conflict about payment. Better read the whole article before you jump to conclusions.

[giggles]

they dont want to go back a 3rd world country they know where theyre better off

[h90]

Give them another couple of months there and the

temperature will be in the minuses. See how many

want to stay then.

Now is September.....Lets talk again mid November.

I think that's what I said there old fella.

yes...I try to imagine the picture of it.....I recall when my wife felt she dies because it had 18 degree in wet house between the mountains in Austria.

And Austria is almost tropic in compare to Finland.....Time is not on their side....

[Thai at Heart]

Reading the article I don't think they have much of a case.

[boomerangutang]

I'll jump to conclusions. Finland is a lot different than Thailand. Issues, and even foreign worker rights are considered seriously. In Thailand worker rights for Thais are dubious, and non-existent for farang or other SE Asians.

Here's my spin, and perhaps it's totally out of left field, but here goes: They heard of one or more Thai ladies who got married to Finns (but that's beside the point). They see how better the standard of living, and wages are there. They see opportunities (and pretty blond gals) that they don't see in Issan. I bet one or more are shooting for asylum, or at least to be able to get the process started to settle there. Scandinavians are known for being open to 'disadvantaged.' White gals are attracted to brown guys (and vice versa). Connect the dots.

Here's a parallel perspective: I knew a Burmese guy, 30-something, who just showed up at a small town in northern California. He didn't leave. Technically, he was illegal, but so what? More than a few local women (divorcees, etc) were attracted to him. He had pick of the litter. He purportedly gave massages for $60/hour, but he didn't even need to make money, as there were women clamoring to take care of him. OK, an isolated incident perhaps, but not far-fetched if you're a student of human quirky behavior. I've known other scenarios like that, perhaps you have too.

[Timwin]

Thais can earn on average about 200-250 000 Bahts after all expenses (flights, accomodation, travel, food) with that seasonal job in Finland and there are many thousand Thai berry pickers every summer there. The same in Sweden. Not a bad job at all for them...

I think it is just gotten so big that some lazy, boozing trouble makers are also coming for "easy" money. Then they realize they have to actually work quite hard and start complaining

Edited September 16, 2013 by Timwin

[MegaRanter]

I know 3 Thai women that work close to my business, that have overstayed their visas by two years.

[samran]

The part of Finland they are in has some strange visa free arrangement from what I recall that doesn't apply to the rest of Finland.

[ezzra]

Same story every year without fail, thai people go to pick berry in some Nordic country,

thai people get cheated, big story big noise, lot of publicity, and the next year same

story all over again, the perpetual hard luck story and as long as there are berries

to pick, thai people will be cheated.

[FiestyFarang]

Bung them in Fin immigration lockup and then blacklist them for 99 years... Thai stylie.

Agree if this happened in Thailand foreigners would be locked up and fined, probably in that order. Anyway it would probably be a job reserved for good old nationalist/racist Thailand.

[louthlincs]

awww diddums - how do you think their attitude would be if they read a similar story about western workers in thailand?

[NoBrainer]

What they should do is each day they pick berries, they should hold onto the berries until they receive the money they are supposed to get for them. If they don't get the money for the berries then the berries go home with them, and they sell them to whoever wants to pay them the going rate.

If all of the pickers got together and said this is how it is going to be done, the employers would have to accept it or go out and pick them themselves.

It is called organized labour. The only way it works though is if everyone agrees to cooperate and everyone complies with what they agreed to do. Could be difficult if the majority of the workers are from Thailand.

[Baerboxer]

The Thai pickers were not employed by the company and therefore were not getting paid to do the work. Instead they were being paid for the berries they pick. This is tax-free income in Finland.

The Thai pickers were complaining that they were not taken good care and the locations where they were picking berries were not good enough for them to make a good money. They have also taken loans in Thailand with 5%/month interest rate. This is becoming an burden.

Then very leftist (ex communist party) member of parliament and few others who started to say that bringing Thais to do the work is almost like human trafficking.

After this the group of Thais stopped to work and the company who was managing the operation got them tickets back home. Thais refused after being told by the 'supporters' not to. It's all big mess now.

Finns consider all people equal and have low tolerance of companies who are exploiting low level workers. On other countries the Thais would have already been kicked out already.

These are the things I picked up from Finnish medias. I guess the truth of all of this will come out someday.. and Finland taxpayers will probably pay the show.

Interesting post - thank you.

I wonder what would happen to Finnish or indeed any other nationalities in similar situations in Thailand.

Would Thailand respect their Human Rights and dignity?

[tfbpa]

Not sure, but from I make of reading the article, not the summary in the OP, the Thais are not picking enough berries to make good money.

The Thais say that it is because the field doesn't have enough berries and the company says the Thais are too slow as other workers in the same field pick a lot more berries and therefore make a lot more money.

Seems to be that they are just too slow workers, but that is of course also a prejudice, but might be correct...

[tfbpa]

For the people who are too lazy to read the article, here it is.

If you state the source, which is here http://yle.fi/uutiset/thai_berry_pickers_refuse_to_leave_finland/6831765, it is perfectly fine to quote original articles, as soooo many times people here don't read them and just comment away without knowing the full story.

<QUOTE FROM ORIGINAL ARTICLE>

A press release issued in the name of the berry pickers in Central Finland says the group will not leave on Saturday, despite the change of date to their return tickets.

In the release, the berry pickers claim that Ber-Ex is trying to put pressure on them as well as denying them their legal rights and compensations. The group also says that actions by the company have violated their human dignity.

Previously the berry pickers expressed outrage over not being able to pick enough berries to earn the sums they were apparently previously promised. The group staying in the Central Finnish locale of Suolahti were concerned they would be unable to pay their debts over travel expenses to Ber-Ex.

The berry pickers and their support group organized a group discussion on Saturday in Suolahti.

Berry company CEO responds

Ber-Ex CEO Kari Jansa has been taken aback by the berry pickers’ claims about his company’s actions.

According to Jansa, the company was obliged to move forward the berry pickers’ return flights, as they were in infringement of visa legislation. The CEO said the Thai workers were in Finland on berry picking visas, and as they now refused to pick berries, his company was obliged to help get them back home.

Jansa also rejected calls to pay set salaries to the berry pickers. He says that they get paid for the kilos of berries picked, and this is tax-free income. Salaries would bring in taxation, lowering the incomes of many berry pickers, Jansa argues.

The CEO claims that the vocal group of berry pickers have performed poorly in their work, as other berry pickers have brought in considerable yields from the same areas that the group claims is devoid of the forest fruit.

This leads Jansa to believe that some of the berry pickers intentionally came to Finland looking for some kind of guaranteed salary.

</QUOTE FROM ORIGINAL ARTICLE>