The government will relax confidentiality laws to reveal labour crime

Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs Anniken Hauglie ( Conservative Party ) Photo:Hans Kristian Thorbjornsen

The government will relax a duty of confidentiality that prevents government agencies from sharing important information that can reveal gross labour crimes.

 

‘We want to change the law, and have now sent out a proposal for consultation to make it easier for the inspection authorities to share information,’ said Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, Anniken Hauglie to TV 2.

Hauglie believes that the proposed change of rules will be important in the fight against labour crimes, which are estimated to cost the community an annual 40 billion. Spearheading the work are seven different Labour Crime centres, which reveal everything from untaxed work and trafficking, to tax crimes and social security fiddling.

At these centres, representatives from the Nav, police, tax, chemist, and the labour inspectorate will be side by side, but much of the information from, for example, Nav, is confidential.

‘We who work with labour crime, of course, look very positively at the easing of the duty of confidentiality now proposed by the government, and there is no doubt that the criminals are the only ones who have benefitted from the strict practice as it is today,’said Rudolf Christoffersen at the Labour Crime (A-Crim) Centre in Bergen to TV 2.

The Government emphasised that the legislation will not include sensitive personal information related to, for example, health.

 

© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today