Baltic States – CIS, Construction, Estonia, Labour-market, Markets and Companies

Vahter said that without builders arriving from Ukraine, Moldova, Poland and other mainly ex-Soviet countries, the Estonian construction market would be on its knees. "Foreign builders are not worse men than Estonians who go to Finland. Foreigners do work for long hours and ask for a reasonably wage," Vahter said.

"We cannot afford to invite builders from the West or Scandinavia. If the Finns came to establish an apartment building here, a square meter would cost 1,000-2,000 euros more than at present," Vahter said, adding that there is no reason to fear that Estonia's own construction workers will be left without bread because of the foreigners.

"There is so much work in the construction sector that if there are problems even with the construction of a large shopping mall, finding a builder to renovate a single apartment is nearly impossible and hourly prices in the sector have increased 30-40% over the last few years," he said.

According to Vahter, there is no legislation in line with the real situation and as there is demand, grey schemes are used for bringing in workforce. "Essentially, the Tax Board is the only one dealing with the foreign workforce by carrying out repeated raids to construction sites, but the real problem is the stiff immigration and employment policy. Foreign workers lack social guarantees and if the salary is left unpaid, they have nowhere to complain to," Vahter said.