Solberg warns against ‘wage theft’

The government announces increased efforts to ensure that wages, pensions, holiday pay and benefits are rightfully paid to employees.

“We have adopted the term ‘wage theft’. From a legal point of view, there is no term for this at the moment, but at the same time everyone understands what it means,” Minister of Labor and Social Inclusion Torbjørn Røe Isaksen (Høyre) told Børsen on Monday.

Together with the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Industry, he attended a meeting on crime at work in Prime Minister Erna Solberg’s (Høyre) office.

“We will get the criminal employers,” warns Solberg.

“There is no doubt that the more measures we take, the more refined the methods of cheating will be. That is why we now say that the penalties should be higher, and we will introduce our own penalties for wage theft,” she says.

According to Børsen, the government is also working to assess special criminal liability for employers who abuse the layoff scheme. Monday’s meeting was an annual review of the status of efforts to combat workplace crime.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today