Work communities in the field of public catering services are becoming more multicultural. At this moment, most of the immigrants work as a temporary worker. The purpose of this thesis was to research how the staff of Tampereen Ateria succeeds in working with immigrants. Were problems with language and multiculturalism existed in daily work life?

The theoretical part explores temporary work, employees with foreign origin and cultural differences. The method used in this thesis was the quantitative method by internet-based survey. The data were collected from 68 employees working on catering or cleaning services.

The respondents stated that the most challenging problem was to orientate immigrants to their duties without a common language. Some of immigrant employees understand neither Finnish nor English. Language skills of the staff of Tampereen Ateria are not adequate, especially professional terminology is insufficient. The occupational safety instructions were not followed by temporary employees. Nevertheless, immigrants are hard-working and motivated.

Visual working instructions or instructions in English should be given by employer. The structural changes in the population will increase multiculturalism and diversity. Education about multiculturalism becomes necessary to avoid the problems in the future.