This isn't exactly true. Employees do have a higher right of privacy even when using company resources than they do in the US, but monitoring is allowed within certain parameters, and that can include searching email or other "private" storage spaces.
Companies must still be able to comply with eDiscovery and data preservation requests from various police agencies (such as Økokrim), and these may be performed without informing individuals that it is happening.
>Compare that to our email, where I can go into anyone's messages immediately if need-be
The only opening for reading employees' communications that I can find by some quick googling, are (1) if there is good reason to believe that information contained there is required to keep the concern going or (2) if there is suspicion of serious dereliction of duties. And even then, there is a significant checklist required in order to do it legally. (Obviously, legal police requests can be fulfilled without necessarily alerting the owner).
My point being, this is a far cry from legally being able to go into anyone's communications immediately if need-be.
Are you aware of further openings than this, apart from the obvious in the case of a court-ordered request? I am basing this on the statement from Datatilsynet at https://www.datatilsynet.no/rettigheter-og-plikter/personver.... General monitoring would seem like a big no-no.
Datatilsynet's statement actually does give quite a bit of leeway, but I do agree that you can't just monitor without reasonable suspicion that the employee is acting improperly.
Companies must still be able to comply with eDiscovery and data preservation requests from various police agencies (such as Økokrim), and these may be performed without informing individuals that it is happening.