Work safety inspections have uncovered a number of shortcomings in companies that employ foreign workers for forest berry picking in Finland, reports the Finnish news agency YLE.

The Regional State Administrative Agency (AVI) for Northern Finland revealed to the public broadcaster that during 32 inspections, a total of 75 notifications regarding identified violations were issued to berry-harvesting companies.

Hanna-Kaisa Rajala, Director of Occupational Safety and Health at the Northern Finland AVI, revealed that most of the reports were related to employee briefings, during which workers should be informed about their statutory rights and obligations as seasonal staff.

She stated that occupational safety officials had issued a total of 26 reports regarding deficiencies in briefings. A further 12 reports were issued concerning both inadequate berry-picking tools and equipment, and the fact that seasonal workers had not been provided with easily accessible contact information for the relevant authorities.

Some workers had been provided by their employer with only a berry picker, but not a bucket or similar container for the berries. Furthermore, the contact information for the authorities potentially included unreachable phone numbers and was only available in Finnish.

However, the duties of occupational safety inspectors do not extend to the accommodation provided to berry pickers, YLE reminded.

The inspections were carried out two years after the adoption of a law aimed at protecting the rights of seasonal workers – berry pickers – in Finland. Occupational safety authorities monitored the sector based on the relevant law. Due to objections from the authorities, monitoring also took place last year.

“During the previous berry-picking season, we already noticed that berry pickers had significant difficulties in speaking with the authorities,” said H. Rajala.

The authorities have tried to address this problem by distributing a brochure and translating other relevant documents into Thai.

“The brochure says, in a slightly caricatured manner: ‘Hey, I am an inspector, and you can talk to me about confidential matters too!’” noted the Director of Occupational Safety and Health, H. Rajala.

H. Rajala declined to provide an assessment of whether the two-year-old law has improved working conditions for berry pickers. “Supervision is completely new for occupational safety authorities, and we have only carried it out for two harvest seasons,” she explained.