Construction work in Oulu
'The builders are mainly from Estonia and Poland. In Helsinki maybe as many as twenty-five percent of construction workers are foreign. In the north it's much less but it means that our members can't get work and are unemployed.'
Sorkas insists that he is not opposed to immigration or even immigrants working in the building industry. 'But everybody has to play by the rules and many of them are not playing by the rules.'
According to the union leader, as many as 10,000 construction firms which are run by Finns are registered in Estonia. 'We have the statistics' he said, though he did not give an example of a specific company. Because they are registered in Estonia, the Finnish taxman 'is unable to follow what they do.'
The companies are awarded Finnish building contracts and send Estonian builders to work in Finland. This creates a situation where the builders, who 'go back to Estonia in the holidays', are able to avoid paying tax in any country and their employers too can avoid their various tax obligations to the Finnish state.
'In 2007, there were 30,000 foreign builders working in Finland and only 1000 of them paid tax,' explained an annoyed Mr Korkas. 'The tax system is complicated and this means that Finns that want building done can use this cheap labour. The total cost of employing a Finnish construction worker (including all costs) is about 35 euros per hour. But the Estonian-registered companies can offer workers for 17 euros an hour . . . so it's half the cost!'
It is expected that this winter, there will be around fifty thousand unemployed construction workers. The sector employs some 160 000 people. The government's response to the crisis has taken the form of a stimulus package and schemes to help finance renovation work.
