Yle's investigative unit MOT interviewed several foreign seasonal labourers who said they faced harsh working conditions at a Finnish strawberry farm, including underpayment, long working hours and lack of rest days.
Most of the workers interviewed were Ukrainians. Some provided employment contracts, pay slips, and message exchanges with farm owners as evidence.
Nadija Bolehovska, Ljubov Zavadetska, Vasyl Konevych and Boryslava Konevych came to do seasonal work on a farm in western Finland but told Yle that the job fell far short of what they'd been promised. Disappointed, they are returning to Ukraine ahead of schedule.
"I didn't believe that in a developed country there could be this kind of slave labour," Konevych said.
Bolehovska said that farm workdays were longer than agreed, labourers needed to plead with their supervisor for days off, and their paid accommodation was modest. She also alleged that the farm owner and a Ukrainian supervisor treated the Ukrainian workers poorly and used abusive language.
Bolehovska told Yle that 13- to 15-hour workdays were common on the strawberry farm. Her payslip did not show the total hours worked because she was paid partly by the hour and partly based on how much she picked (piece rate). No overtime compensation was provided.
Her employment contract, reviewed by Yle, specified a 37-hour workweek, but she said this was regularly and significantly exceeded.
The workers said they were not given any shift schedules, either. Instead, shifts for early the next morning were sometimes announced late the previous evening on WhatsApp.
According to the Ukrainians, they worked on the farm for more than two weeks without a single day off.
"When we arrived at our accommodation late in the evening, we would collapse straight into bed. We took painkillers morning and night just to keep going," she said.
Yle was unable to verify all the details the Ukrainians provided in the documents, but their accounts of events were consistent. A Bulgarian worker who wasn't part of the Ukrainian group also left the same farm abruptly, and his account was similar to theirs.
Yle did not name the farm or its owner, who is not a public figure or person in a position of significant authority. Similar problems have been reported at a number of other farms.
Poor living and working conditions
The fresh strawberries available at Finland's summer markets are increasingly picked by foreign seasonal workers. Pickers working on a piece rate earn about one euro per litre, while the berries have been sold at 10 euros or more.
When a worker fills a box of strawberries in the field, it is typically weighed and marked with an electronic tag, allowing the worker to see the weight.
However, the Ukrainian workers interviewed by Yle said the farm did not allow them to take part in the weighing process, leading to suspicions that some wages were being withheld. Even though some workers picked significantly more than others, the labourers claimed that they were paid roughly the same.
According to the interviewees, workers — men and women who were at first strangers — were housed four to a cramped room and at times transported to the fields in a pickup truck.
According to Bolehovska, the farm enforced strict rules, requiring workers to ask permission even for brief bathroom breaks. When she spoke up about conditions, she was threatened with dismissal.
The All Points North podcast probed the allegations of worker exploitation and human trafficking in Finland's berry sector last year. Listen to the episode via this embedded player, on Yle Areena, via Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Farm owner cites language barrier
The farm owner denied nearly all of the workers' allegations and said the farm does use work schedules, but refused to show them when journalists visited the site.
The owner also did not permit Yle to interview the Ukrainian workers at the farm and agreed to speak anonymously during Yle’s visit.
The farm owner denied that the workers were treated poorly, saying the job is demanding and not suitable for everyone. A language barrier was also cited as a source of misunderstandings. However, the Ukrainian workers had done similar work in Finland in the past.
The owner also told Yle they were unaware that men and women had shared a room or how the workers were being transported, adding that workers were allowed to be present during the weighing of strawberries and were paid for all the strawberries picked.
The owner admitted that the employment contract for one foreign worker was signed only after the job had ended, but explained this was only because it was forgotten.
Unacceptable working hours
Yle requested and received inspection reports from regional state administrative agencies regarding berry and vegetable farms starting in 2024. The reports revealed that many farms lacked proper work schedules.
The length of workdays was often unclear, as start and end times were not recorded. Working hours went unlogged, and overtime and holiday extras went frequently unpaid. In some cases, workers were not compensated according to their experience and some farms had hired individuals without legal permission to work in the sector.
The inspection findings revealed many of the same issues that the Ukrainian workers had described.
According to Jeanette Blom, an inspector at the Regional State Administrative Agency of Southwest Finland, the 15-hour workdays reported by Ukrainian workers to Yle are concerning and not acceptable under current regulations.
Those rules say that a worker's total hours, including overtime, must not exceed an average of 48 hours per week over a six-month period. The employers are also required to provide adequate rest periods to workers. These rules are based on the collective agreement for the agricultural sector.
"This applies even to shorter periods, such as a three-month seasonal job," Bloom said.
Disappointing experience
The four workers, who were headed back to Ukraine by way of a ferry to Tallinn, said their earnings fell short of expectations due to a disappointing seasonal work experience.
"I didn't come here for slave labour. We also wanted to live a real life — go to the forest, pick mushrooms, fish, and enjoy Finland's beautiful nature. But we didn’t get the chance," Bolehovska said.
However, the group said they haven't ruled out returning to Finland, noting that they know there are also good strawberry farms in the country.
