Comment: Here is a good example of how prejudice and racism work together in Finland. An odd-job man that worked for Salon Omakotiyhtistys was given the boot because clients complained that he was not only an immigrant but black as well. This happened in the city of Salo, located near Turku.
Imagine being hired to do a job and then your boss tells you that you have the wrong skin color and/or ethnic background.
I hope that victim gets hold of a good lawyer and sues the company for discrimination.
Do you agree?
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Salon omakotiyhdistyksen palkkaama maahanmuuttajataustainen talkkari ei kelvannut kaikille yhdistyksen jäsenille. He antoivat aiheesta palautetta myös puheenjohtajalleen Jaakko Korpelalle. Korpela sanoo suoraan, että asiakkaat eivät ottaneet talkkarin palveluja, kun kuulivat, että hän on maahanmuuttaja ja musta.
Obviously there are good grounds for claiming unlawful dismissal in this case.
Just one point of background: it is misleading to describe a talkkari as a “janitor” in this context. Essentially a talkkari is a village odd-job man, who helps with things like gardening, wood chopping, snow clearance and other practical chores. I suspect that the word is a derivation of talkoomies, but shorn of its voluntary connotations.
This sounds horrible. I also hope that the talkkari gets himself a lawyer sees this thing till the end. I hope, but I doubt he will.
Then the same people would complain that immigrants don’t want to work….
Totally disgusting!
BlandaUpp, it’s like the old saying: Damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
Seppo
The infringement of paragraph 4 of section 4 of chapter 1 of the Employment Contracts Act is quite self-evident and Jaakko Korpela has shown praiseworthy honesty in making no attempt to conceal the facts of the case. The Association would therefore be well advised to cut its losses and settle this matter quickly.
Whether the members will want to elect the same Chairman again is another story…
I am having some trouble reconciling this case with the fact that there is no racism in Finland, but perhaps some of our more rabid regular posters can square this particular circle for us. Any takers?
Some background details were still on the association’s website as of 15.45 on Tuesday.
Thanks for this, JusticeDemon! I’ve added it to the blog entry.
Come on now! In which other country in the western world does this type of behavior happen? Where else would stake holders in a company (the general public) openly say that they do not want an employee because he is black? I have lived in the USA, France and the UK.This sort of thing used to happen in the 1960’s in the US and the UK; not now! People have moved on! Yet, Finns want to consider themselves part of the “western” world.This kind of behavior is more inkeeping with Eastern Europe.
Being a janitor is a job no one really wants to do. Yet, in Finland,even that job is considered too good for a black man.At a time when a black man is the President of the greatest democracy in the world, Finns hold on to the notion that the only thing black people (immigrants) can do is clean up their sidewalks.
When will those racist Finnish savages see the light? When will they realize that the rest of the western world has moved on, whilst they suffocate in that type of primal and basic racism?
The Finns are no different from the remote tribes of the world (often referred to as savages). Just like the Finns, these tribes hate anything which does not look like them.
Finns, get out of the bush, and see the bright lights of the world.
Good news! He will make a rikosilmoitus.
http://www.sss.fi/uutiset/254594.html
Thank you for the link Seppo! Sueing the company is not only important for him but for future immigrants and Multicultural Finns as well! When we are confronted by racism and prejudice we should always keep in mind our children and grandchldren.
Of course this kind of dismissal also constitutes a prima facie offence under section 3 of chapter 47 of the Finnish Penal Code, as it involves disadvantaging an employee on account of skin colour. I would expect the police to refer this report to the labour protection authorities for investigation and then to co-sign any findings and submit them to the public prosecutor.
The problem with this approach is that it can take a very long time and it also involves a higher standard of evidence than a straightforward civil claim for unlawful dismissal. This creates a danger that the investigation and prosecution may take so long that the two-year deadline for a civil lawsuit expires.
Similar problems arise when employee representatives are unlawfully dismissed. There is a real danger that the interests of the victim become obscured by the public interest process.
This victim will need to remain vigilant to make sure that nobody drops the ball on the way to court.
JusticeDemon, I have read some of your posts and I can only praise what I read for it’s objectivity and clarity. My praises go to Enrique too, I would find it very hard to detach
personal grievances from my writing and feelings would easily come trough.
About this discussion I think that it wouldn’t be too big a problem if the civil lawsuit expires.
If confirmed that this man was dismissed due to his race and/or origin then there is a clear
violation of human rights here. A clear-cut case to submit to the european court of human rights. I am convinced that there are associations out there that would take this man’s case and help him. I think that in order to submit a case to the european court you have first to exhaust the legal possibilities in the country where the violation takes place. So maybe it is a good thing that the case expires in investigation in Finland.
I think that it is time to bring shame to the Finland. This people are not stupid and they know what they are doing. They used to make top notch mobile phones, for god’s sake. Maybe it’s time for the rest of us in Europe to know what really is happening in finland regarding foreigners. So media coverage would be a good thing outside the finnish borders. It would help people like me, who went there thinking that it was a normal country and had, like in other countries, an average modern attitude towards foreigners. There is little self regulation or none in finland, just try to complain when you are wronged by state institutions and you will know. They should put signs at the border controls warning outsiders about what is REALLY going on there.
antonio
Sadly, the procedural aspects are not quite as simple as you suggest.
It makes sense to request an official investigation, as this is an effective and risk-free way to determine the facts of the case. If no civil claim is filed within two years of rescinding the employment, however, then the right to pursue such a claim will lapse. This, in itself, constitutes no fault on the part of Finland in relation to any international human rights instrument.
It is possible to attach an individual claim for compensation to a prosecution for a criminal offence, but the standard of evidence is higher than in a civil action and I’m not sure that the normalised compensation arrangements of Finnish labour law will then apply.
As I said above, similar technical problems can arise when employee representatives are unlawfully dismissed. I know of at least one case in which a shop steward lost the right to claim compensation in a slam-dunk case of illegal dismissal.
Cases of this kind require the utmost vigilance and expertise, sustained over a period of at least two years from the time of the offence/tort. It is very easy to drop the ball and be left with nothing.
Maybe they do not know what they are doing. Some people suffer lack of interpersonal or/an emotional intelligence…..even if they have logical/mathematics intelligence ;o)