Bus driver Mahen Galpotthawela
More and more immigrants are taking on the challenge of being a bus driver. Finns no longer want to drive buses in the congested capital, but Mahen Galpotthawela has respect for the job, as it takes care, skill, customer service skills – and patience.
The options for job placement for immigrants are fewer than those for Finnish people. There are of course places on training courses, but few go on to take up positions of responsibility. Mahen Galpotthawela, 40, has always managed to find work.
“Your attitude counts for a lot. How you see things and what you are prepared to take on. I have been a cleaner, a courier, a day care centre assistant, and I also helped out in a restaurant before my career as a driver.”
Eighteen years ago Mahen Galpotthawela arrived in Finland from Sri Lanka to see his brother, but found himself a Finnish wife and remained here permanently.
It was tough at first for someone who did not know the language, but Galpotthawela started studying it, went on courses run by the employment office, and quite soon got a job as a porter. He dropped out of the Espoo College of Social Welfare and Health Care, and instead found employment immediately after taking a bus driver’s course.
“With competition in transport the timetables have got tighter and the working conditions have got poorer.”
Galpotthawela first worked on a Helsinki city route but today he drives on virtually all the routes in the Helsinki and Vantaa area. The company employs a two-week guaranteed salary system, but changing shifts causes problems for family life and leisure pursuits.
“The working day can be as long as 10 hours, although you might have a break as long as one and a half hours on one shift. Sometimes the day is only five days long. The work shifts can of course be agreed. Some drivers prefer to work for seven days in a row. I do a few days at a time and then I take a day off.
A few years ago the drivers got to know the passengers on a route, and the vehicles were clean, but all that has changed.
Galpotthawela thinks always changing shifts distances the drivers from their customers. The good thing about the present shift system, though, is that the drivers get to drive different routes and so do not get bored so easily, as each day is different.
“I like my job. It’s clean, I enjoy driving, I get by on my pay, and I work with a lot of nice people. I don’t think I’ll be changing jobs, at least not in the next few years.
Galpotthawela now speaks fluent Finnish, and when he does the airport run he can deal with passengers in English too. Galpotthawela hopes that when the company employs immigrants as drivers they will take note of any language abilities they have.
Text and photograph: Anu Likonen, Jukka Vuolle and Nanni Akkola
The Ministry of Employment and the Economy