Response to interpellation 2022/23:240 on crime in the labor market within the construction industry
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
KD considers that systematic rule violations distort competition and favor organized crime. KD argues that the government is working offensively with agency cooperation, regional centers, and investigations into supplier control 1. KD emphasizes that a new main rule in the secrecy legislation is crucial for information sharing 2 1 3. KD claims that the investigation on stricter conditions for labor migration aims to tackle the problem 1. S considers that price pressure in public procurement leads to worse conditions and wants labor market testing for labor migration 4. S wants to set requirements for collective agreements and apprenticeship places in procurements 4 5 6. S argues that crime should be stopped before it reaches the workplaces 7. S considers that the government and SD are failing serious companies by removing the possibility of labor market testing 8. S considers that a wage floor with many exceptions risks becoming hollow 8. S argues that false A1 certificates cause employers to evade social security contributions 5.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Statsrådet Andreas Carlson (KD)
Mr. Speaker! Jim Svensk Larm has asked the Minister for Equality and Deputy Minister for Employment if she intends to take any concrete measures to address work-related crime within the construction industry and, if so, which ones. The interpellation has been handed over to me.
It is important that there is order in the labor market and that laws, rules, and agreements are complied with. Good conditions shall apply to everyone who works in Sweden. It is, of course, in no way justifiable that people, whether they come to Sweden to work or constitute domestic labor, are exploited. Fraud, abuse, and crime must be combated with full force.
There are unscrupulous companies that use business models where they systematically violate provisions in regulations or agreements concerning working life. This leads to the competition being distorted and to serious companies being unable to run their operations. This too must be combated with full force. The income from the unscrupulous companies also often goes to organized crime. That the actors within organized crime have the ability to use companies as criminal tools and act in society's legal sphere is particularly serious.
The government is firmly determined to combat crime, fraud, and abuse linked to the labor market. Nine agencies are working together to counter crime in the working life on several different fronts. This also includes work against human trafficking and human exploitation, which is a way for unscrupulous companies to exploit labor on the Swedish labor market.
More regional centers against crime against the working life will be an important tool to counter this form of crime. During 2023, an additional five new regional centers against crime against the working life will open around the country, in addition to the two that have already been opened in Umeå and Göteborg.
The centers shall function as a hub for the agencies' work regarding planning, implementation, and follow-up of joint activities, with a focus on joint agency controls. The regional centers shall share offices with the regional intelligence centers that already exist within the framework of agency cooperation against organized crime. Through co-location, existing resources are utilized effectively, and cooperation between the agencies is facilitated.
Public procurement aims to promote healthy competition and counteract, for example, corruption and other irregularities within public affairs. Good governance and monitoring of entered contracts is also an effective tool to counteract crime in the workplace. Upphandlingsmyndigheten has a three-year mandate to focus particularly on the construction and civil engineering sector when it comes to the governance and development of procurement work.
Furthermore, an investigation is currently underway that is to propose an effective and reliable system for supplier control in connection with public procurement. The Government has also appointed an investigation that is to review the law on contractor liability for wage claims in the construction and civil engineering sector to see if it functions as effectively as desired or if it can be strengthened.
To obtain additional tools to combat, among other things, crime in the labor market, the government wants, in accordance with the Tidö Agreement, that all relevant information at the authorities concerned shall be able to be shared with law enforcement agencies to combat crime, which has been requested for a long time. Expanded possibilities for the exchange of information between authorities are also an important tool to counter the organized crime's exploitation of labor.
An investigator has been tasked with evaluating the possibilities for information exchange, among other things, in order to cooperate more effectively and monitor workplaces in order to combat crime in the workplace. The Government Offices are currently preparing the proposals that the investigator submitted in the department report Utökat informationsutbyte.
Jim Svensk Larm (S)
Mr. Speaker! I thank the Minister for the answer to the interpellation and the opportunity to debate this issue.
I want to begin the debate by stating that Swedish laws and agreements shall apply in the Swedish labor market. It should be a self-evident matter for everyone, but unfortunately, we repeatedly receive reports in the media that certain companies choose to operate outside the rules of the game that exist. One of the industries that is pointed out as being extra vulnerable is precisely the construction industry, which we are debating today.
Every year, many procurements are carried out within the construction industry as public activities are to build new or renovate. Prices are often pushed down in the competition to win the procurements, which unfortunately often results in the employees paying the ultimate price through poorer conditions regarding both the work environment and wages. Within the construction industry, there are also often several layers of contractors, which both contributes to price pressure and makes it more difficult to follow up that the conditions set in the procurement are being met.
There are also major problems linked to labor immigration within the construction industry. That construction workers arriving here are exploited and forced to work under unreasonable conditions is more or less everyday life on many Swedish construction sites. It is no secret that we Social Democrats believe that there needs to be a labor market assessment for labor immigration.
Labor crime has probably existed for a long time throughout society, but it is only recently that it has become a hot political issue. Articles describing how vulnerable people are exploited on, among other things, construction sites, in the cleaning industry, and in restaurants are something we are reading more and more about in the media. Examples where workers have had to sleep in basements, pay back parts of their wages, or work under horrific conditions affect us all.
These are stories that make it clear to us that people are affected by the crime we are talking about in today's debate. But crime in the workplace does not only hit the individuals who are exploited, it hits the entire society. We are estimated to lose 26 billion kronor in tax revenue due to fraudulent companies. Companies that want to do the right thing have to compete with those who cheat with everything from not having a safe working environment to the handling of taxes and wages.
An important part of the work against unfair competition is the parties' own work. Here, the Delegation against work-life crime points out that the construction industry in particular has come a long way in its cooperation, but during the recent period, we have been able to read how something is not right. Four trade unions have now chosen to leave the cooperation on fair competition, and the tone has been raised. At the same time, criticism is directed at the employer organization Byggföretagen from both Byggnads and a large construction company. The criticism concerns precisely work-life crime.
It is worrying that such serious criticism is directed at one of the parties in the construction market, because if there is something we need to agree on, it is the work of supporting serious companies that want to be on the Swedish labor market - not the unserious companies that exploit workers and cheat.
Today is the day of the collective agreement, Mr. Speaker, and it would be strange not to touch upon the importance of collective agreements in this debate. It is, in fact, the basis of the labor market parties' tasks – to sign agreements for how conditions, wages, and cooperation shall take place within that agreement area. For us Social Democrats, the collective agreement is a supporting factor in the labor market. We want that employments shall be covered by collective agreements, be permanent employments, and be full-time.
Public procurement, as I mentioned earlier, has a major impact on the construction industry. I would have liked to see that we had the opportunity to set requirements for collective agreements in procurements made by the public sector, but as long as that is not possible, it is important that we set requirements on working conditions in procurements. Equally important, however, is to set requirements for apprenticeship places, which Byggnads has raised several times. It is obviously important so that future builders will have the opportunity to learn, but it is also part of working away the crime in the working life.
I think it is good that the government has tasked the National Agency for Public Procurement to focus on the construction sector when it comes to governance and follow-up, but they will not present anything until May 2024. Does the government intend to take any measures before May 2024 to address the crime against the labor market in the construction sector resulting from public procurement?
Leif Nysmed (S)
Mr. Speaker! I would like to begin by thanking the Minister for the answer. However, I was left somewhat wondering about how the government prioritizes the issue of order and stability in the Swedish labor market.
A couple of weeks ago, I stood here and debated this issue with Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard, and now I am standing here debating labor market issues with the Minister for Infrastructure and Housing. This important issue does not seem to be something that responsible labor market ministers want to answer.
I listened to the Minister's response. It is good that the investments we decided on to combat crime in the workplace continue; this includes, among other things, the inter-agency cooperation that has been initiated and the investments in workplace crime centers that have been decided upon. I hope that they receive the resources and opportunities to continue the important work they are doing.
All these initiatives are important for controlling workplaces, Mr. Speaker. But controls most often occur in hindsight, and by then, crime has already been let into our workplaces. Much of the exploitation of especially foreign labor began when the previous Alliance government, together with the Green Party, removed the labor market assessment of foreign labor and let the companies themselves decide whether they needed labor from countries outside the EU.
An important step to prevent criminals in the Swedish labor market is to reintroduce a labor market screening for foreign labor. Why do the government and SD not even want to investigate this issue? Why are the government and SD failing the companies that are serious and demand this, as SH Bygg recently did together with Byggnads, and the honest wage earners who toil for their bread in the fight against labor market crime?
Why are you betraying them? I do not think this provides any answer on how you want to stop the crime before it enters the workplaces. Controls in hindsight are good, but they are difficult to carry out.
Statsrådet Andreas Carlson (KD)
Mr. Speaker! I thank the members for their commitment and questions.
I raised a point in my introduction that none of the members took up. I would like us to highlight something that has been raised for many years, not least by the authorities in the joint authority work against serious organized crime, namely the secrecy legislation. It is about being able to share all relevant information.
Here I see with great joy the trust that the Social Democratic members place in my and the government's work during the 150 days that we have been in power. This, however, has been a problem for a significantly longer time than that. It is pointed out in the Tidö Agreement that a new main rule in the secrecy legislation shall be developed, and it is primarily this that will make it possible for authorities to cooperate with full force.
Mr. Speaker! I have sat in the Riksdag's Committee on Justice for many years and have been out to many construction sites. I have been told how difficult it is for the authorities to work together when they cannot share information. One example that has been mentioned is that if you come from three different authorities, you need to speak at three different occasions because you risk receiving information that, according to today's secrecy legislation, you do not have the right to access.
Even before we in this government took office, we pointed out in the Tidö Agreement that we need to develop a new main rule in the secrecy legislation, and that work is ongoing.
Leif Nysmed claimed that those responsible do not seem to want to answer questions, but it is quite the opposite – this is a priority issue for the entire government. If one specifically speaks of questions that lie on the Migration Minister's desk, it is of course the Migration Minister who will come here and answer the questions. If one, as Member Svensk Larm has done today, asks questions about work-related crime within the construction industry, I, as Housing Minister, will be here and answer the questions.
We are working together and on a broad front to achieve the paradigm shift that is truly needed for the development to be reversed. I have accounted for this work. Some of it was started during the previous government. What is good, we will of course build upon and scale up. What has however been missing is a cornerstone in the work, namely a new secrecy legislation that enables the authorities to share all relevant information so that they have the same picture and can work even more jointly to push back the gross organized crime. We have kick-started this work, and more will occur; you can be sure of that.
Jim Svensk Larm (S)
Mr. Speaker! I would like to thank the Minister for the answer, even though it was not quite an answer to our questions.
Confidentiality is absolutely important, and an investigation has been conducted – however, I am a bit unsure whether it has been referred.
It is important that we work broadly with these issues to address the fraud that occurs at certain companies. It is, of course, about control and about ensuring that the procurement conditions that are set are also met, but it is also possible to do a lot of prevention.
One issue that is raised as problematic is posted workers who have a so-called A1 certificate. It is a certificate that is intended to show that the worker pays social security contributions in their home country instead of here in Sweden. If the certificates are fake, the employer evades the social security contributions. This naturally has an impact on the competition with companies that do the right thing.
Försäkringskassan was tasked by the previous government to report on how they work with the so-called A1 certificates and to submit proposals for measures to resolve the problem. During the past year, Försäkringskassan submitted its report on A1 with proposals for measures. They point out that this is something that affects several agencies and that it is therefore important with cooperation between the agencies. This should now be able to occur more efficiently with the centers that have begun to be built up. It is important that the government expeditiously prepares the proposals that have been submitted in this report.
Byggnads also highlights the problems with the A1 certificates. It is not possible to verify their authenticity. Byggnads often encounters cases where the certificates are copied. It might be appropriate to review a common system across the entire EU to check if the A1 certificates are correct.
We have during the last months seen how the number of bankruptcies has increased. The construction industry is one of the industries that has been hit hardest. It is therefore important now that we do everything we can to remove the unhealthy competition. In my previous post, I spoke about the importance of the parties, but I also want to highlight the authorities' responsibility.
In December, Boverket submitted its report Assignment to counter crime in the working life, errors, deficiencies and damages within the construction sector. During the work, Boverket has gathered actors in the construction sector and has submitted proposals for long-term measures to strengthen the authorities' work to contribute to a healthy construction sector. I hope that the government listens to Boverket to see how it is possible to take this further.
But what is being discussed most regarding the authorities' responsibility are the regional centers against labor crime, which have just opened in Umeå and Gothenburg. More centers will also open during the year. Nine authorities gather here to work together. An important part that has been discussed, and which I believe the government is preparing, is the question of secrecy. How shall we remove the obstacles that exist between authorities so that the authorities can work together in an effective way?
Mr. Speaker! At the end of February, news was published that one of the Building Ombudsmen had been attacked outside his home. The ombudsman worked, among other things, with negotiating with companies that did not pay out correct wages. It is not difficult to start thinking that there is a connection between work-life crime and this attack. Those who earn money from work-life crime have close links to organized crime, which makes it extra urgent to combat this.
Crime in the working environment is a complex problem that affects many authorities and departments. As I have mentioned previously, much of the construction industry's problems stem from public procurement. There, prices are pressured down by unscrupulous actors who enter the market. At the end of the chain are workers who pay the ultimate price with their working environment and poorer conditions.
I believe that this would be easier to avoid if we were to set requirements for collective agreements in procurements. I therefore want to ask the government today, on the day of the collective agreement, whether they will work to make it possible to set requirements for collective agreements in procurements for new construction and renovation.
Leif Nysmed (S)
Mr. Speaker! The Minister says that the government has had a rough start. By rough start, it is meant that they have scrapped the investigation that was to look at labor market testing for foreign labor. Instead, a wage floor is proposed.
I want to ask the Minister how a wage floor full of exceptions will prevent crime in the working life. As the ombudsman at Byggnads, from which I am now on leave of absence, I have seen – and I still see – how foreign workers who have been in a difficult situation and have not been free have been made to pay back large parts of the wages they received to the employer after they have been paid, so that it looks good on paper when, for example, Byggnads or authorities carry out inspections.
How is it possible to deal with this with all the exceptions that will exist regarding the wage floor that the government's investigation is to produce? The government's investigation risks becoming more hollow than Swiss cheese, and I assert that exceptions are all the best friend of unserious entrepreneurs.
I have for four years followed the Economic Crime Authority's investigation of a large Swedish construction company that has had labor without permission to work in Sweden. Because there are so many exceptions, the Economic Crime Authority has had problems showing that these individuals have not had this right. If, for example, a Belarusian worker is cohabiting with an EEA citizen and this EEA citizen works in Sweden, the Belarusian worker is allowed to accompany them. It is strange, and it is difficult to investigate in retrospect.
Controls are good, but we must stop the crime before it enters the workplace. That is why the possibility of labor market testing for foreign labor is so incredibly important, and therefore I am disappointed when the government and SD remove this possibility without even investigating it. How difficult can it be to find out how it is and what advantages and disadvantages there are?
Again: Why are the government and SD betraying serious companies and honest wage earners in the fight against crime in the working life?
Statsrådet Andreas Carlson (KD)
Mr. Speaker! A question that Jim Svensk Larm raised concerned the parties. The authorities cooperating against crime in the working life have reached an agreement on party cooperation with Svenskt Näringsliv and LO. It was centrally decided to establish a national strategic group consisting of representatives from both organizations and the participating authorities. Skatteverket is the convener. The authorities and the labor market parties have selected the construction industry as a pilot industry for cooperation, and work is underway here.
One of the issues highlighted within the party cooperation and this pilot project is the municipalities' opportunity for strategic management of their procurement work in order to counteract crime in the workplace.
The Government is working to accelerate the development of a more purposeful governance and organization of procurement activities, among other things through the mandate to Upphandlingsmyndigheten. As I said in my introduction, the agency received a three-year mandate in this year's regulatory letter to focus particularly on the construction and civil engineering sector when it comes to the governance and development of procurement work.
The establishment of labor crime centers will continue during 2023. We are working offensively and strengthening the offensive against crime. It is an important part of providing workers with a socially sustainable working life, and the offensive against labor crime at home continues therefore. The nine agencies cooperating in the work cover many large and important societal functions to take a holistic approach and provide a holistic perspective.
The members of the committee asked again about the secrecy legislation. We are in the process of making it both broader and significantly more useful, unlike the previous government. You held power for eight years but are still standing here talking about it. If it were seriously an important priority, we could have expected some higher momentum in establishing a system for what everyone highlights as the major problem: that different authorities cannot share information when they are to work together to push back against serious organized crime.
So, regarding the question about the government's investigation into stricter conditions for labor migration. On February 17, the government decided on additional directives for the investigation on a needs-based labor migration. The purpose is partly to tighten the conditions for labor migration, and partly to promote high-skilled labor migration. Sweden shall protect and improve the rules for qualified and high-skilled labor migration. For both serious companies and workers, it is important that crime and fraud linked to labor migration are combated with full force, as my colleague the Minister for Migration said when this was presented.
Leif Nysmed and other interested parties can take part in this supplementary directive. It is not about a Swiss cheese but about seriously tackling the problem, not just with words in the Riksdag chamber but also in action in the operations that work with this. They will receive significantly better tools, which are now being prepared at a high pace by the government.
Jim Svensk Larm (S)
Mr. Speaker! I am a bit unsure whether I should thank the Minister for the answers, as I received no answers to my questions. He did, however, interpret some of my arguments as questions, but I did not ask any questions about the work-life crime center or secrecy, but rather raised the importance of these.
However, I asked a question about whether the government intends to make it possible to demand collective agreements, but I did not receive an answer to that. Collective agreements are important in the Swedish labor market, and serious employers sign collective agreements. The Minister says that one should combat crime in the working environment with full force but says nothing about collective agreements in procurement.
In the partial report presented by the Delegation against labor crime in February, there were proposals for changes. Among other things, they point out the quality of the existing posting register. This is where we come to what the Minister of Justice said about the importance of being able to exchange information between authorities. This register is of such low quality that it cannot be used for cross-referencing. Such a register is an important tool for other Nordic countries to access the posted labor that is being exploited.
I know that the partial report came quite recently, but I hope that the government handles the proposals quickly. As the Minister says, it is important that the authorities have good cooperation and that the information available is of high quality.
I conclude by thanking the Minister for the debate. Work-related crime has no place in our society. We must work broadly to tackle this problem, and I am sure that we will continue to discuss these issues during the mandate period.
Statsrådet Andreas Carlson (KD)
Mr. Speaker! Let me begin by thanking Jim Svensk Larm for the interpellation and the debate. It is positive that we have a broad consensus across party lines regarding the importance of combating crime in the workplace.
If I remember correctly, the member said in his first contribution that on Swedish soil, Swedish laws shall apply, and I agree with that one hundred percent.
It is important that we work broadly, hard, effectively and with full force. The previous government started a number of good things, and we will continue to work with those and increase the pace. We will also address the gaps that exist. This applies primarily to the secrecy legislation, and here there seems to be a consensus.
I therefore count on strong support when we present the proposals that are now being prepared in the direction of the Tidö Agreement: to develop a new main rule in the secrecy legislation. Then we can seriously ensure that authorities can share the information needed so that they can work more strategically and with full force to ensure what the member said about that on Swedish soil, Swedish law shall apply.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.