Response to interpellation 2022/23:278 on crime in the workplace and serious crime
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
M takes seriously the unserious companies used by organized crime 1 and wants to combat crime, cheating, and abuse with effective sanctions 1. M wants to facilitate information exchange between authorities to follow the money 1 2, has allocated resources to strengthen the work against cheating and fraud 2 and believes that consumers have a responsibility to detect dishonest prices 3. M argues that companies without collective agreements can be fantastic employers 3 and that combating crime in the working life is a priority issue 4. S argues that crime in the working life is a comprehensive national problem 5 and that collective agreements are an important signal of an employer's reliability 6. S wants to increase consumers' awareness 6 and believes that large additional efforts are needed to combat tax evasion 7.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Finansministern Elisabeth Svantesson (M)
Madam Speaker! Hanna Westerén has asked me how I intend to ensure order and clarity in high-risk sectors for work-related crime and thereby ensure that approved deductions are not abused. She has also asked me how I intend to follow up on the Swedish Tax Agency's proposal regarding changes in the secrecy legislation for more effective agency cooperation.
The Government views seriously that there are unscrupulous companies that use business models where they systematically violate provisions in regulations or agreements concerning working life. Income from the unscrupulous companies often goes to organized crime. That actors within organized crime use companies as criminal tools and act in society's legal sphere is particularly serious.
The authorities cooperating against organized crime assess that society is deprived of large sums in taxes and fees annually, that money is paid out to individuals and companies on incorrect grounds, and that economic crime is a significantly larger societal problem than crime statistics show. The Tidö Agreement represents a paradigm shift in the view of how organized, system-threatening crime should be combated. Crime, fraud, and abuse must be combated with accurate and effective sanctions.
In the 2022 tax procedure investigation, work is ongoing to propose measures against fraud and work-life crime. According to the directives, the investigator shall review the information provided at the individual level in the employer declaration and investigate whether additional information, which is needed to effectively counter work-life crime as well as incorrect payments and crimes against the welfare systems, should be provided. If there is a need, the investigator shall also submit proposals for confidentiality-breaking provisions that enable the information to be disclosed to other authorities.
The investigator shall also review certain issues linked to personnel registers as well as to tax reductions for household work and green technology. The purpose of the review is, among other things, to counter fraud and crime in the labor market. A partial report with proposals on which pieces of information at the individual level shall be submitted in the employer declaration shall be submitted no later than 31 August 2023. The investigator's proposals regarding personnel registers and tax reductions for household work and green technology shall be reported no later than 30 August 2024.
In order to obtain additional tools to combat, among other things, crime in the working life, the government intends, in accordance with the Tidö Agreement, that authorities shall be able to share all relevant information with law enforcement agencies when needed to combat crime. This is something that the authorities have requested for a longer period. I and other ministers in the government are in dialogue with, among others, the Swedish Tax Agency regarding the needs. At the last meeting in the Council against Organized Crime, which the Minister for Justice leads, the exchange of information was discussed, for example.
Furthermore, an investigator within the Ministry of Finance has been tasked with investigating the possibilities for information exchange between state and municipal authorities and unemployment funds, in order to, among other things, ensure that the data underlying payments from the welfare systems are correct as well as to strengthen the conditions for joint authority controls against labor market crime.
In the department memorandum Utökat informationsutbyte, several proposals are submitted aimed at facilitating information exchange between authorities, municipalities, and unemployment insurance funds. The memorandum has been referred, and the proposals are now being prepared in the Government Offices.
Hanna Westerén (S)
Madam Speaker! As you can see, I was very eager to come to the rostrum. It is not so strange since I have had to wait a few months to be able to debate with the Minister for Finance.
Given the focus we have in Swedish debate, Madam Speaker, on that we shall fight the gangs, choke off the money flow and fight organized crime, it has been very much anticipated and important for me to inquire how the work against crime in the labor market is prioritized by the government.
We have now heard the answer from Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson. It is technical and formal, and it naturally holds its own given that we are talking about legislation and taxation. I would, however, like to dwell for a moment on what we are actually talking about today, because the variations regarding crime in the working life are so many and astonishing in their variety. The ingenuity for illegitimately enriching oneself and, in addition, exploiting other people is absolutely enormous.
In the report from the cooperating authorities, which the Minister for Finance also mentioned, we can read about a number of phenomena. From the Work Environment Authority and the trade union organizations, there are also many extremely unpleasant testimonies concerning lack of protective equipment, seized passports, fake ID documents, substandard worker housing, and pure human trafficking.
Organized crime spares no means to milk the common systems of resources. It is expensive and bad, but for the people who get caught and exploited, it is also life-threatening.
I come from Gotland. At my home, in the country's smallest county, a work environment inspection was recently conducted, and 7 out of 20 construction sites were closed. They were issued an immediate work ban. We are talking, as said, about the country's smallest county. The scalability of this testifies to the fact that it is an immensely extensive national problem.
The reason why construction sites neglect protective equipment and safety is that, unfortunately, there is a lot of money to be made from negligence. The price for the negligence and the omission is paid by people who injure themselves or, in the worst case, die at work.
It must never pay to neglect security and to exploit people. It must never pay to evade taxation and cheat on social insurance. Nevertheless, it is still possible in today's Sweden. This feeds the coffers of the gangs that all parties here in the chamber say they want to combat.
I wonder therefore: Are we in agreement that we need to do even more to combat the obviously rampant crime in the working life, promote healthy competition, counter tax evasion and thereby secure resources for the needs of the welfare system?
Sofie Eriksson (S)
Madam Speaker! I would like to take this opportunity to warmly welcome the Minister for Finance and, of course, everyone else to Dalarna. Also, Crister Carlsson, who is sitting here in the chamber, is a member from Dalarna. We are very proud of our fine county.
There are many different nice things to do here. Among other things, one can go skiing, both cross-country and downhill. If one books a cabin in Idre or Sälen, the risk is unfortunately quite large that it is built by construction workers who have lived under extremely poor working conditions. It can even be so bad that the cabin one stays in is built by undocumented construction workers who have been offered prostitutes as payment. This is something that was reported in the regional media a few weeks ago and is another example of the appalling situation in parts of our labor market.
A few years ago, we heard about Vietnamese nail technicians who were imported with big promises of a better life in Sweden but who have to work ten hours a day, six days a week. They have had to pay back a large portion of the wages they have received to the employer and live under slave-like conditions.
Philippine au pairs have come here to work for wealthy Swedes, also with promises of getting a better life. Rather, they live locked up and are expected to be on constant call. They work as many hours as they want without receiving a decent wage.
The Construction Market Commission is a cross-party organization that works to combat fraud in the construction industry. The former Christian Democrat Stefan Attefall - yes, he is perhaps still a Christian Democrat - leads this organization. He reported 12 construction companies a few years ago. Of a total of 90 audited companies, 20 of them breached the collective agreement, which is a fairly large proportion.
When they examined various companies, they also concluded that over 80 percent of all companies within the construction industry coming from Eastern Europe cheat or commit crimes. It is an extremely serious situation.
In my assignment, I am out at many workplaces and constantly see how people try to bypass rules. One is incredibly creative in the attempts to cheat.
The perspective I want to put forward and be clear about here is that it is the unions that stand absolutely at the forefront in the fight against this. It is the trade union movement that is out there monitoring. It is very often so. We read about the raids that the police and the Work Environment Authority carry out. They are extremely important, and it is important to continue with them. It is positive with everyone who stands behind this work. But often it is the unions that have noticed the problems from the beginning. It is the unions that are out at the workplaces and have eyes and ears out there. It is they who take the fight.
The question is whether we have a government that wants to strengthen their work or weaken it. We have had votes here in the chamber regarding the powers of regional safety representatives and regarding requirements for collective agreements in public procurement, that is to say, things that are important to strengthen the work that takes place at the very front. I want to therefore highlight this issue, so let's see if I can get answers on how the whole thing is viewed. Does the government want to strengthen the trade union movement's work and powers? It is they who stand at the forefront in the fight against these dreadful, vile companies.
Finansministern Elisabeth Svantesson (M)
Madam Speaker! I thank the interpellor for a very important question. It is important for two strong reasons. One is, naturally, that serious crime now often uses, for example, companies as tools to defraud and deceive and in that way obtain money for its activities. We all need to follow the money and strike against this, so that organized crime does not get an even greater grip on our society. I mean that what is now happening on very many different levels is a threat to the system.
The second reason, which the interpellor also touches upon, is that many people in the midst of all this are exploited in a system. They are exploited brutally, also sometimes as tools, commodities, or otherwise, for and in organized crime.
The government is therefore now working in various ways to crack down on organized crime. The area of responsibility I have as Minister for Finance concerns, first and foremost, the Swedish Tax Agency, but it also concerns several other parts, for example, the Swedish Customs Service, which has an important task in this regard.
I have just given a very long answer to the interpellor. There, I told about what is in progress and what is happening. The government is active and will continue to be so and do more together with the authorities - even together the authorities will be able to do more - so that we can tackle this and break the very, very gross and flagrant system-threatening organized crime.
In our submitted budget bill, we have also allocated resources to the various authorities to strengthen the work against fraud and scams but, of course, also against serious crime. This is absolutely one of our critical issues.
I am glad that the interpellor and many others - both individuals and parties here in the chamber - are passionate about the issue and think it is important. For me, it is incredibly important, Madam Speaker, that the work is intensified in the near future so that we can seriously be able to follow the money.
An important issue that we are working on is that of confidentiality: information exchange and confidentiality legislation. How can we in a better way let authorities share relevant information and not let privacy weigh so heavily that crime can continue? We all know that this is complex, but as I said in the interpellation response, a lot is in motion.
Hanna Westerén (S)
Madam President! I note that the Minister for Finance also touches upon a great deal regarding the people alongside the companies, the rules, and the taxes. I would like us to dwell for another short while on the people, namely those who exploit loopholes in the system and the regulatory frameworks to evade taxation.
I remember so well when the former Minister Anders Ygeman, a few years ago, raised the problem with suspiciously low prices. That is what I wish we would talk more about. The person who buys a haircut, a massage, or a taxi ride at a suspiciously low price must ask themselves: Is this reasonable? Who is it that pays the price for this service being so incredibly cheap? This is also to a very high degree applicable to public procurement, where the offered prices are sometimes just suspiciously low.
We elected representatives obviously have an immensely heavy responsibility to, with all available means, make fraud and abuse more difficult and to push back gangs even in this area, but consumers must also be attentive and aware. Therefore, I wonder if the Minister for Finance intends to issue a similar appeal to the Swedish people as Anders Ygeman did, to dare and have the strength to opt out of the suspiciously low price of care for our fellow human beings, but also to consistently favor white-collar crime.
This would truly be appropriate, not least in the case of lawn and snow services, where there seems to be a constant race to not only have the service subsidized but also to have it performed at the lowest possible price. Somewhere, someone else is paying. It is someone else who pays for the well-ordered's dirt-cheap terraces and subsidized cleanings. Obviously, we need more controls and more confidentiality-breaking interventions, but we also need increased awareness among Swedish consumers that our choices in everyday life matter.
That a company has a collective agreement is, for me, an immensely important signal of reliability. Collective agreements are an important signal that an employer is responsible in terms of finances but also regarding the conditions for the employees in the operation. Collective agreements also, just as my colleague Sofie Eriksson pointed out earlier, provide an immensely better opportunity for safety representatives to protect the employees' health. Therefore, I ask: How important does the Minister of Finance consider the collective agreements to be in this context? They are one piece of many in the struggle for order and tidiness in the Swedish labor market and hinder tax evasion and tax errors.
Sofie Eriksson (S)
Madam President! I thank the Minister for Finance - I perceive that she truly takes this seriously and wants to work with these issues. It is extremely important. My colleagues and I bring up these issues because they are so extremely serious. It is positive if many parties stand united in the fight.
We have done a great deal earlier. The Social Democratic government introduced the work-life crime centers - a very long word - because it is important to gather different agencies so that they work side by side with these parts. Some confidentiality barriers have been broken. These are things that need to continue, and it is positive that it seems like the government is also on that track. It is extremely important. Thank you for that!
I want to return to the track I was on in my previous post and speak about the union – the workers' own organizations. Today, it is the case that workers themselves pay for a very large part of the control mechanism that exists in, among other things, the construction industry. I do not know if it is completely fair that it should look that way. We need to ensure that they have good conditions.
We now have parties in this assembly that want to make the work of the trade union movement more difficult. We have parties that want to reintroduce lex Laval, who want to abolish safety representatives, who want to restrict the right to strike, and who do not think that collective agreements should apply in public procurement. They think that money should continue to go to criminal companies. One must be honest and say that.
It is good that one says that one thinks we should fight this, but then one must also see what are the different pieces that contribute to it. These pieces will make it harder for the trade union movement to fight it and the state will need to act more afterwards. The question is: How does one actually view the union?
Finansministern Elisabeth Svantesson (M)
Madam Speaker! Many thanks for an important and interesting debate and discussion! This is a very important issue where many have a responsibility. My fellow debaters have touched upon it earlier. Of course, the consumers have a responsibility. It is incredibly important to say. If one can go to a nail technician or hairdresser and pay an unreasonably low sum for a service, one knows that something is not right. There, we all have a responsibility.
Trade unions and trade union representatives do a lot of good in the labor market, for example in detecting crime. That work is often done in a good way. However, I do not share the image that those who do not have collective agreements would work in a dishonest way – that is almost how it is made to sound here. There are very many companies in Sweden without collective agreements that are fantastic employers and treat their staff in the very best way, sometimes also with significantly higher wages than in other places. I want that to be said.
What can politics then do? I am here to represent the government, in particular a part of the government. For us, it is very important to ensure that the authorities working with this have all the tools and resources they can possibly get to address and crack the serious organized crime, where people also partially get caught in the crossfire. That is why we ensure that we are clear in our mandates that they shall cooperate with one another. We also increase the level of ambition.
The investigation that is to propose measures against fraud and crime in the working life will soon present a report that I truly look forward to receiving and reading. It will most likely contribute to more tools that help us jointly crack organized crime. I think that is enormously important.
I want to remind that combating, among other things, crime in the working life is a very important part of the Tidö Agreement. It is pleasing that there are many parties in this chamber and in the Riksdag that truly want to counter this. Together we can crack the very problematic economic crime that we see. It feeds gangs, feeds violence, and feeds the enormously large problems that we have had in recent years. We are prepared to turn this around. That was what we went to the election on, and that is the mandate we have received from the voters. The work continues.
Hanna Westerén (S)
Madam Speaker! I would like to thank you for this debate, which I truly appreciate. I will also have the opportunity to speak a bit more with the Minister for Finance in the two upcoming interpellation debates.
There is obviously a commitment in the Chamber and in the Government Offices to push back and combat crime in the labor market. But I would have liked an even clearer statement. It is so obvious that crime in the labor market and the gray areas that exist there are low-hanging fruits for choking off the money tap for the criminal gangs.
I represent the Social Democrats. We allocated 100 million kronor in our shadow budget because we know that our Sweden can be better and because we know that there is more to be done to promote healthy competition, combat tax evasion, and prevent abuse and exploitation of labor. Given what we have discussed here today, Madam Speaker, clearly large additional efforts are needed to address the problems in this area.
I would like to ask the Minister for Finance what the new major power measures are. I am convinced that more and more are needed. I also wonder, as a concluding question, if the Minister for Finance can inform us as to when we can receive the next report from the collaborating authorities. It will be absolutely indispensable for us in the continued work against crime in the labor market.
Finansministern Elisabeth Svantesson (M)
Madam President! The debate is almost over. I received many questions in Hanna Westerén's final contribution. We can return to them in different contexts. I also think that I have already answered them.
I can promise this chamber and the Riksdag that we will continue with this and increase the intensity.
Too little has been done. Otherwise, we would not have the problems that we have now. It is, as I said, a prioritized issue for very many reasons. It is a matter of ensuring that the system-threatening crime can be broken.
Then, among other things, one must take on the costs. But it is also about ensuring that people in this system are not abused, exploited, and used. It is a priority issue. I therefore thank you for the debate.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.