[ad_1]
– Now I will be very honest: I think we should be so realistic that there are probably small companies that do not follow these quarantine rules in detail, they probably do not have the resources to do so, says the city council leader.
The city council leader made the harsh accusation at Thursday’s corona news conference on Christmas. There he said he has good reason to believe that small businesses do not follow quarantine rules, and cautioned that the city council will come back and explain this concern in detail.
– Where the hell did you get it? We don’t recognize ourselves in this at all, says Olaf Thommessen, CEO of SMB Norway, the interest organization for small and medium-sized businesses, to NTB.
Destructive and amazing
– Unless Raymond can present some basic evidence for these kinds of accusations, I would have remained too good to blame the backbone of Norwegian business, which does the best they can to keep the gears of society going, both to national and local orders and varying degrees of confusion, says Thommessen.
He characterizes Johansen’s accusation as follows:
– That kind of accusation is destructive and stupid. Be very careful about accusations against everyday business life in the situation we find ourselves in now, says Thommessen.
The former liberal politician emphasizes that his organization has no basis to say that small businesses do not follow quarantine rules. He asks Johansen to explain in detail what is behind the accusation.
“Among the latest in Norway to be accused of not taking infection control seriously and of being the basis of infection are small businesses, which really do their best to keep the wheels rolling,” says Thommessen.
– You have a problem with junk companies.
The city council leader has received criticism from Thommessen and responds as follows in an email to NTB:
Councilor Raymond Johansen during the press conference at Oslo City Hall to report on the new crown measures in Oslo until Christmas. Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB
– Most small businesses in Norway are serious players and follow infection regulations. But we have a problem with smaller junk companies circumventing the law, using undeclared labor and exploiting foreign labor, he writes.
– Not least in the construction industry in Oslo. Knut E. Sunde at NHO, in today’s Aftenposten, confirms that these also do not follow infection control regulations. He himself says that foreign labor traveled by plane and entered the country directly, without control, to work in less serious companies or to work illegally, writes the leader of the city council.
Concerned about importing infections
At the corona press conference on Thursday, Johansen repeated the call that everyone coming to travel from abroad should be tested. You are concerned about infection imports in the future.
– Unfortunately, the import infection has contributed to Norway and Oslo having their second wave of infection. And we know that many of those who come to Norway for work have traveled from countries with high infection rates, Johansen writes.
– Many of the employers are good at making sure their employees adhere to quarantine, as they should. But I don’t think we can leave this to individuals. We should have a common system for compulsory tests on the arrival of the red countries, but the Storting has voted against it, writes Johansen.
It was when he was asked to deepen this concern, since visitors must be in quarantine in any case, that the city council leader launched the accusation against small businesses.
– We just have to hope that everyone who returns to Oslo after the Christmas holidays elsewhere in Norway and abroad will do whatever it takes not to spread the infection, says Johansen.
