The EU has adopted a Directive on the protection of whistleblowers to ensure a high level of protection for this group. The Directive, which is considered to be EEA-relevant, requires Member States to transpose the Directive into national law by 17 December 2021. Littler Norway has extensive experience in assisting clients in handling notification cases. We recommend that our clients review their notification routines to ensure that these routines meet all requirements for the protection of whistleblowers, including requirements for the proper handling of personal data.

The parliament recently passed several amendments in legislation to make it easier to fight work-related crime. The amendments increase the responsibility for employers. Littler Norway has previously described the proposal behind the new legislation here.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has today ruled in the so-called Holship case. LO and NTF (Norwegian Transport Workers' Union) had made a complaint against Norway because they believed the freedom of association under Article 11 of the ECHR was violated when a notified boycott was declared illegal by the Supreme Court. The ECHR acquitted Norway but recognizes that a boycott as a labour conflict may be protected by the ECHR and that restrictions on the right to a boycott require a proper balancing of interests.

In the judgment of 2 June 2021 in the so-called "Grefsenhjemmet case", the Supreme Court clarified that provisions on stabilization increment in a collective agreement must be regarded as individual wage terms that become part of the person’s individual employment contract, and that such terms did not lapse as a direct as a result of the termination of the collective agreement.

In the revised national budget, the Government has proposed extending several measures and schemes to remedy the consequences of the corona.

On 18 March 2021, the Gulating Court of Appeal ruled in a case with the question of whether there was an unjustifiable termination and offer of new employment on new terms. As opposed to the District Court, the majority of the Court of Appeal sustained the employees claim and awarded her compensation.

In the revised budget for 2021, the Government refrains from introducing an employer period II in the event of temporary lay-off (in some jurisdictions referred to as furlough).

'Regulations on work carried out in employees' homes' have obtained new relevance during the pandemic. The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs has now sent out a proposal for changes to the regulations for consultation. The purpose of the proposed changes is to adapt the rules to current technological and social developments.

On 15 April 2021, LO and NHO agreed on a temporarily extended interruption period for temporary layoff from 6 to 10 weeks. The change will last until 30 September 2021 and makes it easier and less risky for employers to take temporarily laid-off employees back to work.

The Government has recently submitted a proposal to the Parliament on new measures in the combat against work-related crime.

The Government has decided that foreign workers from the EEA area will be compensated for the period they are prevented from working in Norway due to closed borders.

The Government has recently submitted a proposal to the Parliament for the establishment of a low threshold service in the Anti-Discrimination Tribunal for the processing of alleged unlawful retaliation in notofication cases.

Is a jobseeker obliged to inform that he or she was dismissed from his or her previous employer? In a judgment handed down on 18 March this year (reference HR-2021-605-A), the Supreme Court has provided principled guidelines for the content of jobseekers' duty to provide information to potential new employers.

The European Court of Justice recently pronounced two judgments on the demarcation between "working time" and "rest period" under the Working Time Directive (Directive 2003/88 / EC) Article 2, in cases where the employee is on standby duty without being required to stay at the workplace. Among other things, the judgments are important for the interpretation of the Working Environment Act § 10-1, which defines what is "working hours" and "off-duty time" within the meaning of the Act.

On 15 March 2021, a new wage support scheme came into force. The scheme will apply until the end of June 2021 and is aimed at employers who take back their own employees from temporary layoff in the period 15 March to 30 June 2021.