Finland's populist party leader vows to defend local labour force

A key negotiator of the new Finnish government pledged on Saturday that Finland will continue protecting its labor market against availability of lower wage labor from abroad.

Timo Soini, chairman of the populist Finns Party, said that the new government will make sure together with major companies that Finnish workforce will be used in major construction investments.

Soini addressed the party council while talks continued to form a three-party coalition government, comprising the Centrer Party, the Finns Party and the National Coalition Party.

Diverting from his customary criticism of the European Union, Soini praised an EU Court decision last year confirming that employees of foreign companies must be paid according to Finnish tariffs if the work is done in Finland. Last year the EU court also confirmed that Finnish trade unions can take foreign companies to court for failure to comply with Finnish agreements.

Soini said that through co-operation between the upcoming government and Finnish trade unions, "grey economy" can be worked against. Soini underlined that companies should not look for short term cost savings but serve the longer term interest of the country.

Local commentators have noted that policies on foreign labour announced so far have reflected rather the views of the Finns Party than the other two coalition partners.

During the election campaign, the Centre and the Conservatives had favoured cancellation of controls in immigration from outside the EU, but during the governmental talks the parties decided to maintain the controls. Non-EU applicants, except the expert level employees, would only get work permits if the jobs cannot be filled with workers from within the EU.