Section 3-17. Duty of secrecy for safety representatives and members of the working environment committee

Safety representatives or other employee representatives, when safety representatives have not been elected, and members of the working environment committee are obliged to prevent others from gaining access to or knowledge about anything they might learn about the following in the course of their duties:
  1. a.
    any person's personal circumstances, or
  2. b.
    technical installations, production methods, commercial analyses and calculations, and other trade secrets, when the information is of a nature whereby it can be exploited by others in their commercial activities.
The duty of secrecy does not apply if the undertaking or the person the information concerns consent to the information being disclosed, or if this is necessary to inform affected employees or members of the undertaking's bodies about accidents or health hazards in the undertaking.
The working environment committee may decide that its members shall be bound by the duty of secrecy. The exceptions from the duty of secrecy set out in the second paragraph apply correspondingly.
If the safety representative or other employee representative, when a safety representative has not been elected, or a member of the committee is in doubt about whether disclosing information can be damaging, he/she shall consult the person about whom the information concerns.