Union Concerned About Foreign Worker Exploitation

The labour union Framsýn has expressed grave concern that foreign worker exploitation has become widespread in north Iceland.

RÚV reports that most of these cases of illegal treatment of workers have concerned the food service, construction and tourist industries, and pertains to at least dozens of foreign workers in the north Iceland area.

“We have received news of some ugly cases connected to construction, food service and tourism,” Framsýn chairperson Aðalsteinn Árni Baldursson told reporters. “People have been exploited, they have been offered wages that are not in harmony with Icelandic law, and they are mostly foreign workers who have come to Iceland to do temporary work, for a few months.”

Aðalsteinn says he has been in touch with both the Confederation of Icelandic Labour Unions and the Federation of General and Special Workers in Iceland over the matter. He has also been in touch with those companies accused of worker exploitation to give them a chance to improve conditions.

If they do not improve conditions, he said, the union will be forced to take “appropriate measures”, which include going to the police and the tax authorities.