Swedish Companies Involvement in Human Trafficing

Swedish Companies missuse the new rules for the importation of Foreign Workers and with the blessing of the Swedish Immigration Department.

This is from a story from Swedish TV News that came out yesterday.  This is a rough translation of the main points of two  related  news stories from yesterday on this subject.

"Swedish Companies are misusing the new work visa rules that allow easier importation of foreign workers.  It is not uncommon that these invited workers work up to 12 to 14 hours per day for a wage that is much lower than the Hotel and Restaurant Unions collective agreement", said the Union Representative.  They are paid no overtime, get no shift differentials, and no vacation pay.  Many work for 13,000 swedish crowns per month of which they clear 11,000 after taxes.

The Hotel and Restaurant Union does try to help these workers if they end up losing their jobs, but because their work permission is tied to the Swedish Companies no one is speaking up because of a  fear of reprisals.  "Then they are threatened with being fired", said Per Persson the Union Rep.

The Minister of the Swedish Immigration Department Tobias Billström said,  "We look at this seriously and I have the intention to call all parties of the work market to see how they look on the situation".  Well, you haven't taken it too seriously if this has been going on since 2008 and you are allowing unskills workers in who take jobs away from Swedish citizens.

In a related story from Swedish TV News entiled:

Company Owner Wanted 50,000 Swedish Crowns to Hire a Foreign Worker.

Ingelmo Melin Olsson with the border police in Stockholm said to the Dagens Nyheter (DN) that the importation of foreign workers is the next big step in human trafficing.  Someone finally speaks some truth on this subject.  Although he forgot to mention that the Swedish Immigration Authority is quietly allowing smuggling of people to occur in Sweden in a new form and one that is perfectly legal.

According to this report one restaurant owner in Stockholm requested 8 foreign workers from Syria to cut vegetables in his restaurant.  This new easier business friendly program to allow for the import of workers with special skills is really being monitored and reviewed carefully by the Immigration Department.  There are over half of a million Swedes unemployed who would love to have a job, any work even if only to cut carrots which I suppose in the minds of bureaucrats takes a higher education of specialized training and besides company owners in Sweden wouldn't have the opportunity to make up to 50,000 crowns per employee tax free while at the same time paying them a slave wage.  This is a good place to do business.  Perhaps why the Moderates had the campaign slogan of, "The working party".  I ask, working for whom, is it organized criminal smugglars and large corporations or the Swedish people?

The Hotel and Restaurant Union said that one restaurant owner in Stockholm asked a foreign worker applicant to pay him 50,000 Swedish Crowns (Around 8,000 USD) for him to invite him to Sweden to work for him.  Watch out organized criminal smugglars you have some new competition in Sweden in the Human Trafficing Industry, the Swedish Government.  My understanding is you get 10,000 to 20,000 USD per person immigrating to Sweden, at least for the 90 to 95 % that I have heard quoted before by Swedes.  Better lower your prices a bit or the Swedish business owners aided by the Swedish Immigration Department will capture the smuggling market.  Perhaps I am a bit over reactive, it's one of the biggest  industries in  modern Sweden. There's plenty of money to go around.

Here's a link for Swedish readers for more information:

http://svt.se/2.22620/1.2224836/slavliknande_kontrakt_for_arbetskraftsinvandrare

Here is a text with more information:

Publicerad 5 november 2010 - 06:16
Uppdaterad 5 november 2010 - 10:57

Löner som inte betalas ut och slavliknande förhållanden.
Så beskriver restaurangfacket hur svenska företag missbrukar de nya reglerna för friare arbetskraftsinvandring.

Hotell- och restaurangfacket säger att de varje dag får samtal från arbetskraftsinvandrare som utnyttjas av oseriösa företag.
-Man får jobba många timmar. Det är inte ovanligt att man jobbar upp till 12-14 timmar om dan, att man får en lön som ligger långt under kollektivavtalsnivå, säger Per Persson, ombudsman på Hotell- och restaurangfacket.

Inga normala tillägg
-Man får inga som helst andra tillägg. Inga ob-tillägg, övertids-ersättningar, semesterersättningar existerar inte. Att ha nåt inflytande på jobbet finns inte. I det läget så jobbar man direkt under slavliknande former att man har inget att säga till om, fortsätter Per Persson. 

Fakta: Arbetskraftsinvandring
* Sedan den 15 december 2008 bestämmer arbetsgivarna själva om och vilka utländska arbetare de ska anställa. Tidigare avgjorde Arbetsförmedlingen om det fanns behov av att anställa människor från länder utanför EU.
* Det ska i princip räcka med ett erbjudande om anställning för att en icke-EU-medborgare ska beviljas arbets- och uppehållstillstånd i två år