(The online newspaper): Five days before Christmas Eve, Odin Bathen Nonstad was told to report to the Nav Trondheim for Christmas, 27–29. December.
Odin and many others showed up, as part of the entourage. The bewilderment was therefore great when he and the others got in front of the screen to watch the popular series “Christmas Storm” on Netflix, followed by conversations about free and landline.
The 29-year-old thinks this too is a “waste of time” and receives support from many quarters.
Nettavisen spoke to FRP health policy spokesman Bård Hoksrud on Friday morning.
– Even for a film buff like me, this seems very silly, is his first comment.
– When you are in the Nav system, I think your initiative must be related to “getting to work,” Hoksrud tells Nettavisen.
– Hopeless
He understands that it can be an independent point to show that you keep the agreements, but that this will be too much:
– If Nav doesn’t have anything more purposeful to come up with, they can give customers a break during the Christmas season. Most of the others are taking it slower this week, she says.
– This is just a little hopeless.
Hoksrud also noted that Nav is self-critical:
– Fortunately! They seem to realize that this has gone wrong. While we won’t be able to do much with the practice this Christmas, I hope they change the practice for next year.
– Totally idiotic
FRP health policy considers it particularly important that Nav be aware of the trust they are completely dependent on:
– An invention like this seems completely idiotic. It does something to trust if you think the ventures are just silly, she says.
Hoksrud does not overlook the fact that the intention may have been good:
– The thought may have been “that’s kind of cozy,” but it’s still not like watching a movie on the couch at home when you feel like it. If someone had told me to “watch that movie,” I certainly wouldn’t have, he chuckles.
– Christmas in the room should be a truce
MDG Vice-President Ingrid Liland also believes this is completely out of the question.
– Christmas is an important time and a time of respite for most people, and the threshold for putting a strain on people during Christmas should be high. This is especially true for Nav, which has users in many different and challenging life situations, Liland tells Nettavisen.
She is completely baffled to think about this in the middle of Christmas:
– Calling people into the Christmas room at short notice to watch a Christmas movie or demonstrate attendance is not essential. Participation in the NAV must have a purpose that goes beyond simply exercising control, i.e. competence, motivation or address measures to get to work.
It will follow in the new year
Like Hoksrud, he believes this affects trust in the whole system:
– Stories like this one, where people have to meet at Christmas for no apparent reason, help to undermine trust. Nav users and employees deserve a system and regulation that does not arouse distrust and suspicion.
Liland says MDG will look into this further:
– In the new year we will ask the Minister of Labor if this is a practice that the government knows about. We need to know the extent of this kind of control over people and what kind of effect it should have. Rules in Nav need to have an effect, and not just exist to exercise control and show distrust.
Nav will investigate the background
The screening of the film was not held on Nav premises, but is an activity organized by an external event provider.
Nav has agreements with measurement providers, which are companies that provide services for which Nav pays, says director Torbjørn Aas in Nav Trøndelag in an email.
Nav cannot comment on this without derogating from the duty of confidentiality, but responds in a general way.
– After we become aware of the Twitter message, we will investigate the background of the activity against the contract concluded with the company in question, says director Torbjørn Aas at Nav Trøndelag in Nettavisen.
