She came to Sweden after fleeing the war in Ukraine with her son. In her home country, she worked as a lawyer, but here she got a job in the insurance industry. Despite the fact that she has worked in Sweden for several months, her boss has not paid her her entire salary and now she is worried that she will run out of money.
"Every month I wait for my salary, but I don't get the right amount of money. I need to buy food for my son and pay rent. It's not good because I'm here alone with my son and I don't have any support," says Svitlana Potyng.
Over a hundred gathered for help
Together with more than a hundred other Russian-speaking people, she has made her way to a meeting in Stockholm that the trade union SAC organizes every other Sunday. It is mainly builders and cleaners who work for Swedish companies and need help when they are exploited by their employers. Most people talk about how they work without receiving any salary.
Didn't get the full salary
About a third of all the people at the meeting are from Ukraine. One of them is Nina Krichun, who has worked at various cleaning companies in Sweden. Several of the companies have never paid out the full salary.
"When you see this injustice, Sweden doesn't look so attractive anymore," she says.
Pavel Potyng came to Sweden with his girlfriend. He was employed in the Swedish retail sector, but is said to have no salary from parts of the period he worked.
Roman Ramazanov comes from Bulgaria and has a work permit in Sweden. He says that he has been deceived by several different Swedish companies.
"I don't feel angry, but I've lost respect because it's been going on for so long now.
Below you can hear more testimonies from the meeting.
Refugees are exploited in the labour market
Svitlana Potyng: "Are being ripped off straight off"
32 sec
Nina Krichun: "Worked 16 hours straight"
48 sec
Pavel Potyng: "Feeling helpless here"
33 sec
Roman Ramazanov: "Missing 150,000 kronor"
51 sec