Several workers given too much overtime work at Lassila & Tikanoja

YLE news is reporting that environmental services company Lassila & Tikanoja (HEL: LAT1V) is under safety and health work authorities suspicion for supposed Working Hours Act violations. Massive amounts of overtime works, in extreme cases as much as 4 times the legal annual limit, have been noted in its support services for properties and plants business arm. Lassila & Tikanoja responded saying this is due to the massive amounts of snow ploughing works needed last winter, that were concentrated on a number of employees (about 10 of them in total) and promises to clean up its act from now on. The authorities are now considering, whether the issue warrants police investigation.

Because the cleaning & services works at Lassila & Tikanoja are not as clearly defined as in some of the competitors as the company seeks more complex, less-routine type of projects, its personnel hiring problems have sometimes been more pronounced. The company is for example less able to cut some slack regarding the ability to understand Finnish than many other service sector peers. As per usual practise, it also wants to hire as few full-time employees as possible and to rely more on seasonal help and part-time workers. This coupled with the costs of tutoring a new employee then raises incentive to ride out seasonal factors by pushing the few full-time workers over the limit.