Just over 1,200 Thais have this year been granted residence and work permits for this year’s berry season. That is a fraction of the 5,000–6,000 berry pickers who usually come to Sweden every summer.
Even the Thai staffing companies that work against the berry industry have become fewer. Last year, 14 foreign staffing companies were granted permission, this year only six companies have been given the green light to bring Thai labor here.
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Several abuses
— Misconduct in the industry means that we have to ask more questions. The regulations themselves have not changed, but it is still the same conditions that must be met, says Hanna Geurtsensection manager in the Northern region at the Swedish Migration Agency.
The authority has pointed to several irregularities, above all that the berry pickers work very long working days and that they do not receive compensation for overtime.
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The Swedish Migration Agency chose to reject all applications for residence and work permits ahead of this year’s season as the employment conditions regarding salary and working hours were not considered to be met. But the Migration Court changed the decision – and in the end 1,200 permits were granted among about twice as many applicants.
The fact that so few applications have come in, Geurtsen believes, is partly due to the fact that the Swedish Migration Agency has been clear that it has strengthened controls on staffing agencies. Processing times are also significantly longer than before.
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Higher prices for berries
Johan BorgCEO of the berry company Ransäters invest, is one of those granted a permit for berry pickers. He believes that it will cost when fewer berry pickers come to Sweden.
“The consequences will be higher prices for berries, when the supply becomes less,” he says.
The company has berry pickers in Värmland, Dalarna, Västernorrland and Västerbotten. Borg also believes that the lack of berry pickers means that more and more berries are wasted.
— If you look at a year when there are a lot of berry pickers in the forest, there are still a lot of berries that go unpicked. Our berry pickers have been here for just over two months and can’t pick any amount.
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Last year, attention was drawn to the berry pickers’ conditions at a political level. Now a proposal is for referral which means that the wage floor may be raised further and that certain professions, including berry picking, are excluded from the possibility of being granted a work permit.
— There may be changes in the law that completely close the door for Thai berry pickers. The law has not been established yet, but it is a clear political signal that they want to get rid of the abuses that exist in the industry, says Geurtsen.