A contractor at Google’s Skien data centre was found to have breached Norwegian working-time rules 143 times during the first months of 2026, according to an inspection reported by Aftenposten on 2 November. The findings concern the Irish data centre developer Red Bear Tech, which is working on Google’s first facility of its kind in Norway.
The Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority (Arbeidstilsynet) identified 139 breaches of overtime rules and four breaches of rest-period requirements in its examination of the company’s working arrangements. The findings relate to the contractor, rather than a determination that Google itself committed those 143 breaches.
Inspectors faced difficulties obtaining documents
Police and labour inspectors visited the large construction site north of Skien on 25 March. According to TV 2’s account of the inspection, the authority threatened Red Bear Tech with daily penalties of NOK 4,500 (approximately €430) to obtain documents including employment contracts and timesheets. The report describes a threatened penalty, not a fine confirmed as imposed.
The authority said it struggled to obtain responses from ten of the 30 companies checked during the March operation, making its investigations time-consuming. Norway’s official overtime guidance places limits on additional working hours and requires employers to use overtime only for exceptional, time-limited needs.
Geir Peter Hole, a lawyer at Ecovis Legal representing Red Bear Tech, said the company had maintained constructive dialogue with the inspectorate but disagreed with some of its findings. Google said more than 450 Norwegian businesses had worked on the Skien project and, through communications chief Sondre Ronander, said it took allegations of unacceptable working conditions very seriously.
A separate Google data centre investigation in Finland
The Norwegian labour findings come amid scrutiny of another Google data centre project in the Nordic region. In Finland, police announced on 29 October that they had opened a preliminary criminal investigation into suspected environmental damage at the company’s planned site in Muhos, following concerns about drainage and water management.
As NordiskPost previously reported, Finland’s environmental regulator had intervened after extensive preparatory work took place before the required environmental assessments were complete. Google subsidiary Tuike Finland has suspended environmentally significant preparatory work at Muhos and Kajaani.
The cases concern different rules and companies: working hours at a contractor in Norway and possible environmental offences at a Google subsidiary’s project in Finland. The Finnish police investigation is ongoing and does not establish criminal guilt.
