Tightening of rules for hiring and strengthening the right to a full-time position

The government has proposed amendments to the Working Environment Act to tighten access to hiring from staffing companies and strengthen the right to full-time employment. The bills have been submitted to the Parliament (Stortinget) and will in all probability be passed in the autumn of 2022. 

Tightening of rules for hiring

On 17 June 2022, the Ministry of Labor and Social Inclusion submitted a bill to tighten the rules for the use of hiring from staffing companies. The proposal means that:

• hiring from staffing companies shall no longer be permitted for work of a temporary nature
• hired workers are entitled to permanent employment after three years
• the group that gets the right to permanent employment is expanded, so that the right applies to everyone who has been hired
• the definition of hiring is legislated to clarify the delineation of boundaries between hiring and staffing contract
• a new approval scheme for staffing companies is introduced

In addition, the government will stipulate in regulations a ban on hiring from staffing companies on construction sites in Oslo, Viken and the former Vestfold.

The bill is essentially the same as in the consultation bill sent out in January 2022. We have written more about what the changes will mean for employers here.

Compared to the consultation document, a couple of changes have been made that are worth noting:

• the limit for the right to permanent employment by hiring is set at three years, not two years as first proposed
• the ministry shall be able to issue rules in regulations on time-limited hiring of health personnel to ensure proper operation of the health and care service, and time-limited hiring of specialist expertise

Statutory right to full-time employment

The Ministry of Labor and Social Inclusion has also submitted proposals to strengthen the employee's right to a full-time position. The proposed changes will:

• legislate a main rule on permanent employment in a full-time position
• impose an obligation on the employer to document a possible need for part-time employment
• impose an obligation on the employer, among other things on the basis of documentation, to discuss the question of the need for part-time employees with the employee representatives
• extend the preferential rights of part-time employees to also apply when the employer makes hiring, as well as in the case of extra shifts and the like

The consultation document was sent out for consultation in January 2022, and we have written more about what the changes will mean for the employer here.

The proposal is essentially the same as the one sent out in January. In the original proposal, it was proposed that the preferential right to be offered extra shifts could be limited to apply to units with at least 50 employees.

In the final bill, this has been changed so that the preferential right basically applies to the entire business, but the employer can, after discussions with employee representatives, limit this to units with a total of at least 30 employees. By agreement with employee representatives, another or narrower scope can also be determined.