Action plan to combat social dumping and work-related crime

• Read: Action plan to combat social dumping and work-related crime 2022 (PDF)

The action plan includes measures the Government will implement to prevent and combat social dumping and work-related crime. The Government will strengthen employees’ rights and organised industrial relations. Exploitation of vulnerable workers often occurs in cases of social dumping and work-related crime. The Government will review measures that can strengthen the help provided for victims of gross exploitation, and will consider criminalising other forms of exploitation of foreign nationals by employers that are not categorised as human trafficking. Cases of social dumping and work-related crime often entail breaches of the rules in various authorities’ areas of responsibility. Joint efforts are therefore needed in knowledge building, control and follow-up. The Government will strengthen cooperation between public authorities.

This Action plan is worked out in dialogue with the social partners. The Government will prepare annual reports on the follow-up of the action plan and use these reports as a basis for discussions with the social partners on challenges and further efforts to combat social dumping and work-related crime.

What is meant by social dumping?

The term social dumping refers to the practice of giving workers, and particularly migrant workers, significantly poorer pay and employment conditions than Norwegian workers. This can involve breaches of health, working environment and safety regulations, including rules on working hours and requirements for housing standards, and/or when  wages and other benefits are unacceptably low in comparison with the normal earnings of Norwegian employees or do not comply with regulations for general application of collective agreements where these are in force.

What is meant by work-related crime?

The term work-related crime refers to various forms of profit-motivated crime in working life. This type of crime takes place at the cost of employees’ conditions of employment and rights, but it also undermines the tax base and the welfare system. Unscrupulous and criminal actors who exploit tax rules and benefits schemes for their own enrichment contribute to the undermining of trust in Norwegian authorities and the welfare system.

There is no legal definition of work-related crime; it is a generic term for acts that violate Norwegian laws on pay and employment conditions, benefits and taxes, often in an organised form, that exploit workers or distort competition and undermine the social structure.