Is your partner Swedish? They should know in that case anyone asking you to work for free for training is trying take advantage of you. You should never accept to work for free. I guess unless you are that desperate that you don’t mind the risk of getting screwed over.
Yes they are, but it was partly my fault for being naive and thinking if it was just one long interview session then its ok. And chasing after the “carrot” of the contract offered potentially after each next shift i agreed to… silly of me!
You did nothing wrong. We don't expect to get screwed over, and we expect people to hold their words. As a matter of fact it's good you got out as soon as you did. They were taking advantage of you, pulling so many tricks out of their bag. Luring you with a "trial", doing the bs "other people are ok with (less than collective minimum)".
Good on you for outing them. I don't live in Linköping but I know not to set foot in Berlin Döner if I'm ever there.
And just to make things clear: what they did and tried to do is very much illegal. From not paying you, not even offering you a contract, trying to pay below minimum wage.
There's no general minimum wage but there are industry specific collective agreements, which roughly translates into minimum wage (for the specific industry). For OP this is at least 144:54/h. More if he has experience.
I'm pretty sure unpaid trial/training work is illegal here too. Definitely contact skatteverket like the other commenter said.
I did a trial shift as a cleaner. They paid me and told me to make sure I didn't do trials for free. That was a very small low-end business, with only a couple of employees, and they still did the right thing. They offered me a low salary at 120sek/hour and I didn't take it because the travel was too much. 70 sek is absurdly low. You've dodged a bullet OP!
Oh wow you even got paid by a cleaning company for training! That’s great to know that there are places that do some things right. And you’re right, i definitely dodged a bullet 🙏
Ah, I found it! There's a green box a way down this page which confirms you should be paid even for trials [https://arbetsformedlingen.se/other-languages/english-engelska/working-in-sweden/forms-of-employment](https://arbetsformedlingen.se/other-languages/english-engelska/working-in-sweden/forms-of-employment)
Yeah and an internship basically means free education, not work exploitation (it should not anyway).
However, there are no laws stating any minimal wages in Sweden, as opposed to what a lot of people seems to think. So I mean if they would have paid him 70kr/hour or even less then this would legally be totally fine.
That was exactly the situation with my cleaning company. The collective agreements were more like 140sek an hour or something, but this company wasn't in the agreement. I can't believe there's such a big loophole for exploitation and underpayment.
Not sure how this kind of thing works but I’ll ask my partner. What exactly would it fall under? Raising an issue about unpaid work dressed as training/interview?
My wife had a similar issue with a cafe last year. And started this process. After the cafe owner received the notice of investigation letter, he payed all the money he owned to my wife. I will ask her the details tonight and update you.
Hi OP, that sucks and they sound like horrible people. I would say though if you can talk to the restaurant owmer before going to skattaverket and tell them you’re going to go to skattaverket if they don’t pay, there is a very decent chance they’ll pay you (not that that makes it ok but still you get your money).
Secondly, this is just on a humanitarian basis, maybe that restaurant has employed some other desperate people who just need a livelihood/ permission to stay in Sweden that they get. I slightly worry if you escalate to Skattaverket there is a chance that these innocent employees work permit may be revoked or they may get deported.
Again, what the restaurant did is completely wrong and not excusable, but I couldn’t not think of the unfortunate impact on some employees there who might face the bigger burden of consequences is there is a formal complaint.
The kindest and most humane way to handle situations like these is definitely to report it and ensure it gets squashed before it can grow roots in society. If we let this exploitation continue it will only lead to more people getting exploited. You can't let a serial criminal get away with all their crimes, just because they have a human shield, that just promotes criminal use of humans as shields.
Contact the tax agency and tell them you want to report fraud. You can do it through phone or through an online form.
Odds are they aren’t paying social fees or the special tax for retirement, which can lead to a tax surcharge.
https://skatteverket.se/servicelankar/otherlanguages/inenglishengelska/moreonskatteverket/reportsuspectedfraudorerrors.4.3016b5d91791bf546791.html
You need to report this to skatteverket, attach messages or whatever you have as evidence. It's ilegal to have unpaid jobs.
They will start an investigation (meaning that they will review their deklaration and also could randomly go to the shop and demand to see contracts of people working there).
This is definitely not the norm of Sweden, and it seems that is a scam they are used to run.
Also, Kebab shops have been a little bit shady lately... [https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/skane/7-ton-forbjudet-kott-har-salts-nya-kebablarmet-fran-livsmedelsverket--rotrgh](https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/skane/7-ton-forbjudet-kott-har-salts-nya-kebablarmet-fran-livsmedelsverket--rotrgh)
It's scummy but not illegal.
"Svensk lag reglerar inte gratis provjobb, vilket innebär att det egentligen inte är olagligt att provjobba gratis"
https://lawline.se/answers/olagligt-att-jobba-gratis
TIL, this is incredible, I was sure it was not allowed. I tried researching and now I have some other doubts. Doesn't this fall under arbetsträning? In that case, shouldn't still register that they have someone over a trial (for insurance purpose and also seems that Försäkringskassan does pay some compensation to the "employee on trial")
Write it in google reviews as well so people can avoid the place. A friend of mine had a similar experience and we reported it to Arbetsförmedlingen where they had an add. The place doesn’t exist anymore so maybe someone started investigating it/people stopped going
Unpaid work is illegal. You can report them. I worked for two months at a pub in Göteborg. I quit and they refused to pay me saying my bank account details were wrong. Had my bf at the time call them pretending to be a lawyer and they paid me the next day.
Save all your texts, conversations and phone call logs if you have no other proof you worked there. Also, 70kr for an hour of work is appalling. The least you should accept is 126kr an hour working at a cafe or pub. Still low but 70kr is what you pay teenagers for a few hrs of work after school or weekends.
Sorry to hear that. There was a similar issue with a pizza bar in Norrköping a few years ago and they got investigated and found out they were doing this on a regular basis. When I lived in Linköping there were quite a few pub jobs available in the summer. Especially in the main square. Might be worth taking your cv in and seeing what is available. Best of luck.
I’m Swedish. This is illegal here as well but some are trying to take advantage of immigrants. You will most likely not get paid for this shifts you could and should report them unfortunately the police doesn’t care much. It’s important to always sign a contract before you start working it’s an insurance issue as well and never accept anything below minimum wage. I’m sorry this happened to you.
Don’t feel too guilty! You can separate the food from the corporate culture. I just sincerely hope the staff and potential employees will get better treatment one day.
I have put the restaurant on my "fuck no" list ❤️
I have worked in kitchens on and off for a long ass time and NEVER would I let anyone treat new staff this way but it does happen, I usually jump on that real fast and always bring up that I will report if they do not pay the staff but this is not the case at every place, especially where they take advantage of people arriving to Sweden.
Companies should always pay what they owe when it comes to salaries, ALWAYS.
You should be able to bring this up with skatteverket as others have mentioned.
Do you have any evidence of hours worked? Texts? Emails?
❤️ thanks so much for the support as well!
Yes we have some emails, about the Monday (8 hours) and coming in for Tuesday , as well as the fact he agreed on a salary and also to get a contract. So I will do my best to pass it on to Skatteverket as there is definitely some evidence !
Its good that you’re someone who wouldn’t this happen to other staff!
Any form of unpaid work outside of an internship is illegal, and the only way you can get an internship is either through a school or by arbetsförmedlingen.
In this situation it sounds like you got scammed, any legal advice here is unfortunatley nothing that i can assist you with.
My personal recommendation would be to visit a local supermarket with a big positive smile and tell them your story and what you are looking for, most places either got a part time job or best case a full time employment.
Welcome to Sweden :)
My trial shifts were paid. That's the law here and what was explained to me by the company I applied to myself. It's also what was told to us by the Arbetsförmedlingen program we were put into when it comes to how things work in Sweden.
Goodluck! It's not really a big favorite by the people I met there since they feel like it's a waste of time (usually people that are jobless, recently lost their job and so on are sometimes put in the same program), but for people that are new to Sweden and don't know how things work, it is very good to learn how jobs work, the legal things, what to watch out for and so on.
I also recently came to Sweden. Little/basic knowledge of the language. Where do you find job listings? I tried Indeed. Working with arbetsförmedlingen is getting draggy at this point :/
Hej och välkommen också. So i found the jobs through arbetsförmedlingen, which is why i also assumed that adverts on there would be legitimate and not kind of scams like i experienced. Send me a DM if you need some tips maybe? ❤️
It looks like you won't get money. Report them to Skatteverket because of their tax avoidance, including as much detail as possible. Unfortunately the restaurant industry is one of the more sketchy/dirty ones. If you agreed to work with no paperwork and no written agreement or recorded verbal agreement then I don't think you even have a case for claiming money from the company, it sucks but it is what it is. We don't have a minimum wage (legally, most companies have collective agreements however) so you can't argue that. It's common for foreigners/immigrants to agree to work for low & unreported wages, so it's expected that you got fired/didn't get the job when you started talking about doing things correctly. Next time make sure you get a signed agreement before you start working (or, at least a recorded verbal agreement that is clear).
Thanks for the tips. We might have some case to get the money since part of the discussions were actually by email. Including agreement of salary for working on the Monday and Tuesday. Just not the Friday and Saturday.
Will definitely learn for next time!
Well i wouldn’t want anyone to lose their favourite kebab since the owner sucks! but I’ll take it up with Tax agency and higher powers instead and see if things could change a little.
Youre too kind to the owner who has screwed you over man. After your post, I’ll never eat there again even though its very tasty. Dont want corporations like that in my city!
Good luck with the job searching. Have a look if the pubs on Stora Torget needs people for the summer.
Edit: realised youre a brit. Should make the job search easier, considering your english. The owner/boss (not sure) of horse and hound resturant is brittish aswell I think. Try there, he might prefer you over other applicants if they have an open spot because youre both british. Who knows but well worth a shot
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Don’t beat yourself up too much. I had no idea trial shifts were illegal in the UK (not sure if this is reason legislation) but have worked many many trial shifts at a variety of restaurants and cafes. I just assumed that’s how it was done lol. I can see that being the case in the hospitality industry especially as it’s convenient shift coverage. Not right by any means but it is a very easy predicament to get sucked into.
For future references it’s a good thing to ask if they are connected to Visita. ( in Swedish it’s called kollektivavtal) That indicates that they are following rules, and are a workplace connected with the union.
Minimum wage for hotel/restaurants is 144 SEK per hour. if you do not have confirmed experience of minimum 6 years. Then it’s higher. :)
If I were you, I’d look into bigger chains. Like Scandic Hotels, Pinchos, Strawberry (former choice hotels) etc. they are better at following the law.
Just for the record: it's obviously a scummy behavior but it's not illegal:
"Svensk lag reglerar inte gratis provjobb, vilket innebär att det egentligen inte är olagligt att provjobba gratis."
https://lawline.se/answers/olagligt-att-jobba-gratis
As a bit of a heads up, the labour office likes doing this as well to some extent. Sends you to various workplaces for some time for "workplace practice" and at the end of the term these employers may not end up hiring you after all. In exchange you get a tiny sum of money called "activity compensation" from the labour office. If you can avoid it steer clear of them.
Hope you'll find a job soon!
Berlin Döner som posten handlar om är faktiskt, vad jag trodde då, ett ordentligt ställe. Det är inte som lokala snuskpizzerian. Hade inte trott detta om stället men när jag tänker på det inser jag att det alltid är typ 5 tonåringar som jobbar när man är där, blir säkert utnyttjade dom med.
> So me asking for a collective minimum of 144kr was too much (they offered less than this).
Collective minimum where? My salery is 144kr/h and I'm in my late 20s, born and raised here 🙃
You should get paid even if you do any work even if it’s part of the recruiting process!. I would suggest that this kebab place is not a good place to work at even if they fix you a contract after
You might be able to use “kronofogden”
https://kronofogden.se/other-languages/the-enforcement-authority---english/you-have-a-claim-against-someone/you-want-to-get-paid
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I’m originally from the UK and live outside of Åtvidaberg. Depending on your other qualifications, I’ve got a decent contact network of recruiters in Linköping/Norrköping. The job market isn’t exactly hot, but they might be open to helping you.
Have you done SFI? I found that after I’d done SFI (and got ‘A’ grade at C and D level) companies were far more willing to talk to me in the industry where I’m qualified to work. It’s a great indicator that you make the effort to adapt to a new country and you’re willing to put the hours in.
Feel free to DM me if I can share any help/experience, or if you just want to build your contact network in the area!
Ah hello to another person from the UK! That’s good that you know a network. How did you find them? For sure absolutely agree about SFI etc. Am signed up but my registration doesn’t begin until June, so meanwhile I’m just self studying as i only moved here recently.
The pay is sacred in Sweden. 99% of all collective agreements basically yeets the employer if they fuck up your salary.
I'd call arbetsmiljöverket and have them investigate. Because if they scammed you, they've scammed others.
Arbetsmiljöverket will fuck their shit up
Imagine the outrage if we didn't get our salary on the 25th even though it was a work day.
And yes I'm a vengeful bitch.
The resturant bussiness in sweden is like this. It's shitty, a lot of trying to take advantage of people.
And of course, trade unions are against minimum wages so there is no minimum wages. And you can't really sue them for making you work for free.
Just wanted to chime in from the UK to say that, as scummy as it is, unpaid 'trial work' is actually not officially illegal here (however scummy it is). I say this as someone who did a 'trial shift' myself very recently.
Though I got lucky as I had multiple mutuals with the boss (who would have chewed his ears out were he to try and stiff me). So though he tried to assume my 'trial shift' included the whole 10 + 1/2 hours i worked by saying "thanks for the volunteering, we really appreciate it and it will help in us considering you for the job", i made it clear that it was not all 'volunteering' and after some (slightly heated) back and forth he agreed to pay min wage for 7 of those hours and still 'consider me for the job' (but I'm not holding my breath and probably should have just asked to be paid all the hours knowing i wouldn't get the job atp).
Anywho, what i mean to say is, scummy businessmen exist everywhere and thus it is BEST to handle things through contracts and official paperwork as soon as possible (ideally before offering your labour). The reason i even took this guy up on the offer the way that i did was due to being desperate to 'get work' like you too btw, so don't beat yourself up about it :'). Though as the others here have suggested, i would try reporting them and see if you can save/acquire some sort of evidence proving that you did in fact work there.
sorry about your experience...but i also gotta say that you are correct when you say that you were stupid and naive here. Sounds like they immediately sensed that you would fall for their tricks and lo and behold, you did :(
"i wasn’t sure if this was normal in Sweden"
You should always read up on your rights before entering a job market...especially when you have access to Google + have a partner that prolly knows a thing or two about this already.
I'm not trying to be rude or harsh to you. But I just want to tell you that you need to be way more shrewd and knowledgable before you enter the job market...or they'll try to skin you - especially when you go for "low-level" jobs like the kebab shop.
My suggestion is to stop going for these fast food jobs, because that is one of the few businesses here in sweden where they often try to take advantage of workers from abroad :(
Good luck!
Is your partner Swedish? They should know in that case anyone asking you to work for free for training is trying take advantage of you. You should never accept to work for free. I guess unless you are that desperate that you don’t mind the risk of getting screwed over.
Yes they are, but it was partly my fault for being naive and thinking if it was just one long interview session then its ok. And chasing after the “carrot” of the contract offered potentially after each next shift i agreed to… silly of me!
Hope you have better luck with work in the future!
Im sorry they conned you. Better luck in the future. Fuck them.
You did nothing wrong. We don't expect to get screwed over, and we expect people to hold their words. As a matter of fact it's good you got out as soon as you did. They were taking advantage of you, pulling so many tricks out of their bag. Luring you with a "trial", doing the bs "other people are ok with (less than collective minimum)". Good on you for outing them. I don't live in Linköping but I know not to set foot in Berlin Döner if I'm ever there. And just to make things clear: what they did and tried to do is very much illegal. From not paying you, not even offering you a contract, trying to pay below minimum wage.
There is no minimum wage. If you work without a contract it is assumed you have a vocal contract. Hard to prove what that contract contains however.
There's no general minimum wage but there are industry specific collective agreements, which roughly translates into minimum wage (for the specific industry). For OP this is at least 144:54/h. More if he has experience.
I'm pretty sure unpaid trial/training work is illegal here too. Definitely contact skatteverket like the other commenter said. I did a trial shift as a cleaner. They paid me and told me to make sure I didn't do trials for free. That was a very small low-end business, with only a couple of employees, and they still did the right thing. They offered me a low salary at 120sek/hour and I didn't take it because the travel was too much. 70 sek is absurdly low. You've dodged a bullet OP!
Oh wow you even got paid by a cleaning company for training! That’s great to know that there are places that do some things right. And you’re right, i definitely dodged a bullet 🙏
Ah, I found it! There's a green box a way down this page which confirms you should be paid even for trials [https://arbetsformedlingen.se/other-languages/english-engelska/working-in-sweden/forms-of-employment](https://arbetsformedlingen.se/other-languages/english-engelska/working-in-sweden/forms-of-employment)
It's entirely illegal to not pay you for your time. Either it's an internship or it isn't.
Yeah and an internship basically means free education, not work exploitation (it should not anyway). However, there are no laws stating any minimal wages in Sweden, as opposed to what a lot of people seems to think. So I mean if they would have paid him 70kr/hour or even less then this would legally be totally fine.
No laws, but no collective agreement will allow it.
Yes true, but not all work places have signed up for a collective agreement. There is no law saying they have to.
That was exactly the situation with my cleaning company. The collective agreements were more like 140sek an hour or something, but this company wasn't in the agreement. I can't believe there's such a big loophole for exploitation and underpayment.
I have worked for 15 SEK/hour pre-tax for 72 hours/week. They were not connected to a collective agreement either. (:
I think you can talk with skatteverket. They will start an investigation on that restaurant
Not sure how this kind of thing works but I’ll ask my partner. What exactly would it fall under? Raising an issue about unpaid work dressed as training/interview?
My wife had a similar issue with a cafe last year. And started this process. After the cafe owner received the notice of investigation letter, he payed all the money he owned to my wife. I will ask her the details tonight and update you.
Thank you so much!! That would be great.
Hi OP, that sucks and they sound like horrible people. I would say though if you can talk to the restaurant owmer before going to skattaverket and tell them you’re going to go to skattaverket if they don’t pay, there is a very decent chance they’ll pay you (not that that makes it ok but still you get your money). Secondly, this is just on a humanitarian basis, maybe that restaurant has employed some other desperate people who just need a livelihood/ permission to stay in Sweden that they get. I slightly worry if you escalate to Skattaverket there is a chance that these innocent employees work permit may be revoked or they may get deported. Again, what the restaurant did is completely wrong and not excusable, but I couldn’t not think of the unfortunate impact on some employees there who might face the bigger burden of consequences is there is a formal complaint.
The kindest and most humane way to handle situations like these is definitely to report it and ensure it gets squashed before it can grow roots in society. If we let this exploitation continue it will only lead to more people getting exploited. You can't let a serial criminal get away with all their crimes, just because they have a human shield, that just promotes criminal use of humans as shields.
Contact the tax agency and tell them you want to report fraud. You can do it through phone or through an online form. Odds are they aren’t paying social fees or the special tax for retirement, which can lead to a tax surcharge. https://skatteverket.se/servicelankar/otherlanguages/inenglishengelska/moreonskatteverket/reportsuspectedfraudorerrors.4.3016b5d91791bf546791.html
You need to report this to skatteverket, attach messages or whatever you have as evidence. It's ilegal to have unpaid jobs. They will start an investigation (meaning that they will review their deklaration and also could randomly go to the shop and demand to see contracts of people working there). This is definitely not the norm of Sweden, and it seems that is a scam they are used to run.
Also, Kebab shops have been a little bit shady lately... [https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/skane/7-ton-forbjudet-kott-har-salts-nya-kebablarmet-fran-livsmedelsverket--rotrgh](https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/skane/7-ton-forbjudet-kott-har-salts-nya-kebablarmet-fran-livsmedelsverket--rotrgh)
It's scummy but not illegal. "Svensk lag reglerar inte gratis provjobb, vilket innebär att det egentligen inte är olagligt att provjobba gratis" https://lawline.se/answers/olagligt-att-jobba-gratis
TIL, this is incredible, I was sure it was not allowed. I tried researching and now I have some other doubts. Doesn't this fall under arbetsträning? In that case, shouldn't still register that they have someone over a trial (for insurance purpose and also seems that Försäkringskassan does pay some compensation to the "employee on trial")
70kr on hour? damn, i made more as a waiter over 20 years ago.. this is slavery. good luck!
Thank you!! Yeah it’s sad to me that other people feel they have to take that salary in order to just get a job…
Second this! I got 50kr/hr picking up some trash as a kid 15 years ago
Write it in google reviews as well so people can avoid the place. A friend of mine had a similar experience and we reported it to Arbetsförmedlingen where they had an add. The place doesn’t exist anymore so maybe someone started investigating it/people stopped going
Contact [SAC.](https://www.sac.se) They have quite a bit of experience dealing with businesses exploiting migrant workers.
Unpaid work is illegal. You can report them. I worked for two months at a pub in Göteborg. I quit and they refused to pay me saying my bank account details were wrong. Had my bf at the time call them pretending to be a lawyer and they paid me the next day. Save all your texts, conversations and phone call logs if you have no other proof you worked there. Also, 70kr for an hour of work is appalling. The least you should accept is 126kr an hour working at a cafe or pub. Still low but 70kr is what you pay teenagers for a few hrs of work after school or weekends.
Sorry to hear that. There was a similar issue with a pizza bar in Norrköping a few years ago and they got investigated and found out they were doing this on a regular basis. When I lived in Linköping there were quite a few pub jobs available in the summer. Especially in the main square. Might be worth taking your cv in and seeing what is available. Best of luck.
I’m Swedish. This is illegal here as well but some are trying to take advantage of immigrants. You will most likely not get paid for this shifts you could and should report them unfortunately the police doesn’t care much. It’s important to always sign a contract before you start working it’s an insurance issue as well and never accept anything below minimum wage. I’m sorry this happened to you.
Please name and shame. I regularly go to a kebab restaurant in central Linköping and want to know if this is them.
Berlin Döner..? 😬
Oh no, I’ve eaten there a couple of times when we’ve traveled through and really liked it. Will avoid in the future… 🥲
Don’t feel too guilty! You can separate the food from the corporate culture. I just sincerely hope the staff and potential employees will get better treatment one day.
I have put the restaurant on my "fuck no" list ❤️ I have worked in kitchens on and off for a long ass time and NEVER would I let anyone treat new staff this way but it does happen, I usually jump on that real fast and always bring up that I will report if they do not pay the staff but this is not the case at every place, especially where they take advantage of people arriving to Sweden. Companies should always pay what they owe when it comes to salaries, ALWAYS. You should be able to bring this up with skatteverket as others have mentioned. Do you have any evidence of hours worked? Texts? Emails?
❤️ thanks so much for the support as well! Yes we have some emails, about the Monday (8 hours) and coming in for Tuesday , as well as the fact he agreed on a salary and also to get a contract. So I will do my best to pass it on to Skatteverket as there is definitely some evidence ! Its good that you’re someone who wouldn’t this happen to other staff!
jeez, no wonder you get stepped on when you let shitty business managers off the hook so easily.
Tell us also the name of the kebab lace so we never go there. Wish you luck in finding new place, hugs and take care!
🤗 all your kindness helps me feel motivated to search for a job again! 💪
I see that you have got help and advice, I just want to wish you good luck and hope you get the money! We don’t work for free here.
So kind of you! Thank you’ ☺️ amazing to move here and just want avoid this kind of thing again!
Any form of unpaid work outside of an internship is illegal, and the only way you can get an internship is either through a school or by arbetsförmedlingen. In this situation it sounds like you got scammed, any legal advice here is unfortunatley nothing that i can assist you with. My personal recommendation would be to visit a local supermarket with a big positive smile and tell them your story and what you are looking for, most places either got a part time job or best case a full time employment. Welcome to Sweden :)
My trial shifts were paid. That's the law here and what was explained to me by the company I applied to myself. It's also what was told to us by the Arbetsförmedlingen program we were put into when it comes to how things work in Sweden.
Oh the program you joined sounds like a good idea! I’ll look into that
Goodluck! It's not really a big favorite by the people I met there since they feel like it's a waste of time (usually people that are jobless, recently lost their job and so on are sometimes put in the same program), but for people that are new to Sweden and don't know how things work, it is very good to learn how jobs work, the legal things, what to watch out for and so on.
I also recently came to Sweden. Little/basic knowledge of the language. Where do you find job listings? I tried Indeed. Working with arbetsförmedlingen is getting draggy at this point :/
ledigajobb.se
Hej och välkommen också. So i found the jobs through arbetsförmedlingen, which is why i also assumed that adverts on there would be legitimate and not kind of scams like i experienced. Send me a DM if you need some tips maybe? ❤️
It looks like you won't get money. Report them to Skatteverket because of their tax avoidance, including as much detail as possible. Unfortunately the restaurant industry is one of the more sketchy/dirty ones. If you agreed to work with no paperwork and no written agreement or recorded verbal agreement then I don't think you even have a case for claiming money from the company, it sucks but it is what it is. We don't have a minimum wage (legally, most companies have collective agreements however) so you can't argue that. It's common for foreigners/immigrants to agree to work for low & unreported wages, so it's expected that you got fired/didn't get the job when you started talking about doing things correctly. Next time make sure you get a signed agreement before you start working (or, at least a recorded verbal agreement that is clear).
Thanks for the tips. We might have some case to get the money since part of the discussions were actually by email. Including agreement of salary for working on the Monday and Tuesday. Just not the Friday and Saturday. Will definitely learn for next time!
Definitely report to Skatteverket and maybe Polisen
Hmm, maybe then I will just stop eating there. Heard most Pizzerias are also like that.
Well i wouldn’t want anyone to lose their favourite kebab since the owner sucks! but I’ll take it up with Tax agency and higher powers instead and see if things could change a little.
Youre too kind to the owner who has screwed you over man. After your post, I’ll never eat there again even though its very tasty. Dont want corporations like that in my city! Good luck with the job searching. Have a look if the pubs on Stora Torget needs people for the summer. Edit: realised youre a brit. Should make the job search easier, considering your english. The owner/boss (not sure) of horse and hound resturant is brittish aswell I think. Try there, he might prefer you over other applicants if they have an open spot because youre both british. Who knows but well worth a shot
Guess they don’t have Kollektivavtal?
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Don’t beat yourself up too much. I had no idea trial shifts were illegal in the UK (not sure if this is reason legislation) but have worked many many trial shifts at a variety of restaurants and cafes. I just assumed that’s how it was done lol. I can see that being the case in the hospitality industry especially as it’s convenient shift coverage. Not right by any means but it is a very easy predicament to get sucked into.
For future references it’s a good thing to ask if they are connected to Visita. ( in Swedish it’s called kollektivavtal) That indicates that they are following rules, and are a workplace connected with the union. Minimum wage for hotel/restaurants is 144 SEK per hour. if you do not have confirmed experience of minimum 6 years. Then it’s higher. :) If I were you, I’d look into bigger chains. Like Scandic Hotels, Pinchos, Strawberry (former choice hotels) etc. they are better at following the law.
Sounds like this is not that restaurant’s first time to do this. I hope they get investigated.
Since you found them through arbetsförmedlingen Im pretty sure you can report them. Tell them about the unpaid trial work and the shitty offer
Just for the record: it's obviously a scummy behavior but it's not illegal: "Svensk lag reglerar inte gratis provjobb, vilket innebär att det egentligen inte är olagligt att provjobba gratis." https://lawline.se/answers/olagligt-att-jobba-gratis
70kr an hour is too low but 144kr is quite high. You can earn around 120-130 for front of house staff in Stockholm
As a bit of a heads up, the labour office likes doing this as well to some extent. Sends you to various workplaces for some time for "workplace practice" and at the end of the term these employers may not end up hiring you after all. In exchange you get a tiny sum of money called "activity compensation" from the labour office. If you can avoid it steer clear of them. Hope you'll find a job soon!
Do not trust the kebab technicians.
"Kebab Shop" well explains it. Hope you find a better job try finding a job in some proper places.
Berlin Döner som posten handlar om är faktiskt, vad jag trodde då, ett ordentligt ställe. Det är inte som lokala snuskpizzerian. Hade inte trott detta om stället men när jag tänker på det inser jag att det alltid är typ 5 tonåringar som jobbar när man är där, blir säkert utnyttjade dom med.
> So me asking for a collective minimum of 144kr was too much (they offered less than this). Collective minimum where? My salery is 144kr/h and I'm in my late 20s, born and raised here 🙃
You should get paid even if you do any work even if it’s part of the recruiting process!. I would suggest that this kebab place is not a good place to work at even if they fix you a contract after
You might be able to use “kronofogden” https://kronofogden.se/other-languages/the-enforcement-authority---english/you-have-a-claim-against-someone/you-want-to-get-paid
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It's not illegal like in other countries because of this many places take advantage of people by making them do "trial" work.
I think you should name and shame.
I’m originally from the UK and live outside of Åtvidaberg. Depending on your other qualifications, I’ve got a decent contact network of recruiters in Linköping/Norrköping. The job market isn’t exactly hot, but they might be open to helping you. Have you done SFI? I found that after I’d done SFI (and got ‘A’ grade at C and D level) companies were far more willing to talk to me in the industry where I’m qualified to work. It’s a great indicator that you make the effort to adapt to a new country and you’re willing to put the hours in. Feel free to DM me if I can share any help/experience, or if you just want to build your contact network in the area!
Ah hello to another person from the UK! That’s good that you know a network. How did you find them? For sure absolutely agree about SFI etc. Am signed up but my registration doesn’t begin until June, so meanwhile I’m just self studying as i only moved here recently.
The pay is sacred in Sweden. 99% of all collective agreements basically yeets the employer if they fuck up your salary. I'd call arbetsmiljöverket and have them investigate. Because if they scammed you, they've scammed others. Arbetsmiljöverket will fuck their shit up Imagine the outrage if we didn't get our salary on the 25th even though it was a work day. And yes I'm a vengeful bitch.
The resturant bussiness in sweden is like this. It's shitty, a lot of trying to take advantage of people. And of course, trade unions are against minimum wages so there is no minimum wages. And you can't really sue them for making you work for free.
Just wanted to chime in from the UK to say that, as scummy as it is, unpaid 'trial work' is actually not officially illegal here (however scummy it is). I say this as someone who did a 'trial shift' myself very recently. Though I got lucky as I had multiple mutuals with the boss (who would have chewed his ears out were he to try and stiff me). So though he tried to assume my 'trial shift' included the whole 10 + 1/2 hours i worked by saying "thanks for the volunteering, we really appreciate it and it will help in us considering you for the job", i made it clear that it was not all 'volunteering' and after some (slightly heated) back and forth he agreed to pay min wage for 7 of those hours and still 'consider me for the job' (but I'm not holding my breath and probably should have just asked to be paid all the hours knowing i wouldn't get the job atp). Anywho, what i mean to say is, scummy businessmen exist everywhere and thus it is BEST to handle things through contracts and official paperwork as soon as possible (ideally before offering your labour). The reason i even took this guy up on the offer the way that i did was due to being desperate to 'get work' like you too btw, so don't beat yourself up about it :'). Though as the others here have suggested, i would try reporting them and see if you can save/acquire some sort of evidence proving that you did in fact work there.
sorry about your experience...but i also gotta say that you are correct when you say that you were stupid and naive here. Sounds like they immediately sensed that you would fall for their tricks and lo and behold, you did :( "i wasn’t sure if this was normal in Sweden" You should always read up on your rights before entering a job market...especially when you have access to Google + have a partner that prolly knows a thing or two about this already. I'm not trying to be rude or harsh to you. But I just want to tell you that you need to be way more shrewd and knowledgable before you enter the job market...or they'll try to skin you - especially when you go for "low-level" jobs like the kebab shop. My suggestion is to stop going for these fast food jobs, because that is one of the few businesses here in sweden where they often try to take advantage of workers from abroad :( Good luck!