Foreign company with employees in Norway?

From January 2022, most of the Norwegian Working Environment Act will apply if a foreign company sends one of its employees to work in Norway for more than 12 months. These changes implement EU rules. Here is an overview.

1 What is a "posted worker"?

When a foreign company sends its employees temporarily to work in Norway, the workers are called "posted workers". The posted worker is an employee of a company abroad, sent temporarily to Norway to, for example, work for a customer there or for the Norwegian branch of the group. Another example is a foreign temp agency that sends one of its employees to a customer in Norway.

2 What working conditions apply to posted workers today?

Today, Norway has a specific regulation which enforce parts of the Norwegian employment legislation to the employment during the period that the posted worker works in Norway. The regulation implements EU rules. The aim is to ensure that, during the period that the foreign worker works in Norway, his/her working conditions are at the same level as Norwegian employees. Today, the following provisions of the Norwegian Working Environment Act apply when the posted worker works in Norway:

• Requirement for a safe and secure working environment
• Working time
• Work by children and youth
• Leaves in connection with the role as a parent
• Protection against discrimination
• Content requirement of the written employment contract
• The provisions concerning hiring workers from staffing agencies and other companies.

In addition, the entire Holiday Act and the parts of the Equality and Anti-Discrimination Act concerning discrimination, harassment, and retaliation in employment, apply. In certain sectors, some of the provisions from collective bargaining agreements (e.g. concerning wages) apply to all companies within the sector, regardless of whether they are actually bound by a collective bargaining agreement. Such provisions also apply to the posted workers while they work in Norway.

3 What are the "new" working conditions for posted workers?

The changes that are enforced from January entails the application of further provisions from the Norwegian Working Environment Act for employees who are sent to work in Norway for more than 12 months. The changes provides these posted workers with the same rights and protection as Norwegian employees when it comes to:

• Whistle-blowing and protection against retaliation
• Working Environment Committee
• Information and consultation where the company has more than 50 employees
• Limitation on the company's possible control measures, e.g., access to the employee's e-mail, camera surveillance, medical examinations
• Leave of absences that do not concern the role as a parent, e.g., to care for close relatives, military service, education etc.
• Staff rules
• Non-solicitation of colleagues etc.
• Transfer of undertakings

These additional provisions do not apply if the need for work in Norway is less than 12 months. If so, only the current provisions (cf. section  2) still applies. The current provisions also applies if the assignment, at the start, is set to last for less than 12 months, but is later extended to up to 18 months. The requirement for these situations is that the foreign company notifies the Norwegian Labor Inspection Authority about the extension.

4 What working conditions will not apply to posted workers ?

Despite the changes from January, certain parts of the Norwegian Working Environment Act still will not apply, regardless of the period of the posting to Norway. This concern:

• The requirement for an internal whistle-blowing procedure
• Non-compete and non-solicitation of customers
• The provisions concerning part-time employment
• The provisions concerning temporary employment
• The provisions concerning termination with and without notice, except for the protection of employment for pregnant employees and employees on parental leave.

Furthermore, a posted worker in Norway will not trigger an obligation for the foreign company to have a collective occupational pension scheme for its posted workers in Norway.

5 Increased documentation requirements

Today, the requirements for the documentation for during the period that a posted worker works in Norway are an employment agreement, an overview of working hours and pay slips. From January, the foreign company must also be able to document the expected duration of the work in Norway, the planned start and end date, the expected number of posted workers and the identity of these.

6 Hired temps from a temp agency

The changes also introduce a new provision that allocates the responsibility for the hired temp’s working conditions when the temp is sent to work outside of Norway. If a Norwegian company hires a temp from a (Norwegian or foreign) temp agency, and sends that person to work temporarily in another country than Norway, the temp agency is the one responsible for ensuring that the working conditions for the hired temp complies with the legislation in the country where the hired temps is working.

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Please reach out to us if you are uncertain how these changes will or may impact your business and the employees you have/plan to have in Norway. Through Littler, we work closely with lawyers throughout Europe and can easily put together the international legal team your company needs.