Illegal workers get small fines

RIGA - The fining earlier this month of a Latvian construction firm for employing illegal workers shows that not only do people from post-Soviet countries go abroad to work, but workers, both legally and illegally, are coming here.

The construction firm E.Heitkamp Lettland un Rigas Buvapvieniba, which is building the new Bank of Latvia vault, was cited Sept. 11 for employing 15 illegal workers, according to an officer from the National Labor Inspectorate.

Independent television channel LNT's program "Nedela" on Sept. 10 showed nine Polish and six Portuguese guest workers working on the bank's vault construction.

The following day immigration police together with the National Labour Inspectorate established that none of the workers could provide valid work permits.

"Both, Polish and Portuguese workers, have violated the law by failing to provide valid work permits when asked on Sept. 11," said Irena Kalnina, an officer from the National Labour Inspectorate.

The Citizenship and Migration Administration ruled that the Portuguese workers had to leave the country. The Polish workers told inspectors that their work permits were being processed and the following day they were issued.

The National Labour Inspectorate fined E.Heitkamp Lettland un Rigas Buvapvieniba representative Dainis Markovskis 250 lats ($410 ) for employing the workers.

Under Latvian law, only employers are fined, not workers.

"All that we can do in these kind of cases is fine the employer who is responsible for employing them, and this is the maximum we can charge," said Kalnina.

Workers, however, can be deported, which the Portuguese were. But the Poles stayed, though they had been working illegally before their permits were issued.

The law on foreign travel and residency in Latvia says: "Residential permit should be revoked if the person has been working and fails to provide valid work permit .... and the employer should be fined for violating the labor legislation."

The case of the Polish and Portuguese workers may be one in a growing number of illegal workers arriving in Latvia, as the country sheds its Soviet past and progresses toward European Union membership.

Last year the State Employment Service refused work permits to 220 foreigners. Nineteen guest workers were caught working illegaly and 15 companies were fined 565 lats in total.

According to Ilze Haberlinga, an official from the State Employment Service, more than 1,000 visitor workers from over 30 countries are employed in Latvia permanently.

The largest number of foreign workers, mostly shipyard employees, are from Ukraine and Russia, she said.

In July, 1,197 foreign workers were employed in Latvia. At that time 53 workers arrived from Ukraine and 40 from Russia. Others included 28 employees from Estonia, 22 from Germany, 17 from Great Britain, 13 from Poland and 12 from France.

During the third quarter of the year, the number of guest workers traditionally increases as teachers and education employees arrive in Latvia from Germany, Poland and other countries, said Haberlinga.

At the same time, there are almost 10,000 Latvian residents looking for jobs. From 26,497 unemployed ordinary workers almost 2,000 are looking for a jobs in the construction industry.

"This is just a drop in the ocean compared to the labor black market in Latvia. Still lots of empoyees are paid in envelopes to avoid taxes," said Georgs Kortenko, deputy director of the National Labour Inspectorate.