This article discusses the exploitation of international migrant workers who are employed on Finnish construction sites. International workers are known to be especially vulnerable to exploitation due to e.g. cultural and linguistic differences.

The article is based on a case study: the analysis concentrates on the claimed wrongdoings that occurred at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium renovation site during 2016–2020. The objective of the study was to identify what are the structural, organisational and individual factors that enable the exploitation of migrant workers on construction sites, and specifically at the Olympic Stadium construction site, what measures were in place before the incident to prevent labour exploitation, and what has changed since.

The identification of factors was based on the theoretical framework of state-corporate crime by Michalowski and Kramer (2006). Based on the analyses, it is clear that the factors that enable exploitation are multi-faceted, residing on the individual, organisational, industrial and structural levels. In addition, some factors behind exploitation have international roots.

Based on the literature and our analyses, our main recommendation is that from the viewpoint of the state, there is a need to change legislation to ease multiauthority-cooperation or to allow one authority to have the power to tackle all the manifestations of labour exploitation. From the corporate viewpoint, more care should be given to the well-being of the workers and the prevention of exploitation especially in public procurement. As the subcontracting chains are deep and the exploitation cases complex, properly preventing exploitation requires a good understanding of the functioning of the construction site as well as necessary managerial authority to intervene when needed.

In conclusion, we argue that Davies’ (2022) interpretation that the structure of the construction industry is criminogenic is valid, and that the issues present on the structural level are those that should primarily be addressed when further steps to prevent exploitation are discussed.

This article is based on a seminar paper written by multiple students during a course called Corporate Crime, Law, and Power. The students have all given their permission for the publication of this article.