Changes in 2024 can mean a lot to you as an employee.
January 1 doesn't just mean the first day of the year. When we start working again in 2024, there will be changes that will have consequences for you as an employee.
This is the result of the left, including SV, year after year pushing forward what the parties believe are advances in the rights of working people.
Here are the most important changes to work environment laws effective January 1:
More people will be hired where they work
The term employee is now clarified in the Working Environment Act to make it easier to distinguish between employees and contractors.
Due to this, the government is strengthening the security for many people who are currently self-employed. The aim of amending the Working Environment Act is to ensure that more of these people are directly employed by the company.
Being a direct employee offers many benefits to the individual:
• Sickness entitlement benefits
• Retirement
• Better job security
• Receipt of holiday pay
In the long run, this could result in more permanent employment and fewer contractors and the self-employed.
– It is very important that more people get employee rights now. Individuals who actually claim to be an employee will accomplish this. This will be an important bulwark against more casual work and an important move towards a more organized working life, Freddie Øvstegård (SV), chairman of the Labor and Social Committee in Storting, tells FriFagbevegelse.
The rule change has been well received in LO in general and Kryo in particular. With 10,500 members, the association is Norway's largest artist organization and one of the largest groups of self-employed people.
Other groups covered by the rule change could be hairdressers, bicycle couriers and car couriers – many of whom are known as counselors within welfare services.
The government's changes to the Working Environment Act are a follow-up to the Fougner Group's proposals. The group looked at the working life of the future and came up with 15 proposals for changes in 2021.
Bicycle distribution, like Budora, will be affected by new changes from the new year.
Martin Guttormsen Slordal
Staffing companies should do this
All staffing agencies employing workers in Norway must be registered with the Norwegian Labor Inspection Authority. However, from January 1, 2024, the current system of registration will be discontinued.
Government compensation will be a consent scheme. This means the following:
Staffing companies that employ workers and are already registered must obtain permission from the Norwegian Labor Inspection Authority to operate legally. Application for obtaining such permission is available from November 20. It must be in place to operate businesses from January 1, 2024.
Requirements to be met are that the company ensures equal treatment and has written employment contracts, security services and occupational injury insurance.
In addition, the company must be registered in the Enterprise Register, the Enterprise Register, the Value Added Tax Register and the Register of Employees and Employers.
The LO believes that the current registration scheme may sometimes work against its purpose, giving a false impression of seriousness, and therefore supports the introduction of the consent scheme.
The NHO opposes the government's crackdown on the workforce, but they stand behind the scheme.
That is, requirements that all serious organizations must meet.
Reduction in group
Employers who form part of a group will, from the new year, have more obligations in the event of downsizing and redundancies.
This is a rule change in the Working Environment Act that will require a section of employers.
Employers are currently obliged to reduce their obligation to offer the employee another suitable job in the company. A rule change from January 1 means that an employee is entitled to other suitable jobs in other group companies.
– Companies in a group must reduce whether other group companies have other suitable jobs that can be offered to an employee who is at risk of being fired and has no other job to offer, confirms legal advisor Hans Germond. Kausla in Simpliar.
To change this rule, Chowsla points out that each group needs to develop good practices and systems for exchanging information between group companies.
Security Agent
From January 1, 2024, these changes to the Working Environment Act on Defense Representatives will take effect:
* Businesses with five or more employees must have at least one safety representative, but with fewer than five employees, another arrangement may be agreed.
* The safety representative's duties include employed workers and independent contractors who work in close contact with the business.
* It has been confirmed that the duties of the safety representative include the psychosocial environment of the employees
Permanent employment
For temporary workers, it is now possible to get the right to permanent employment if you have worked continuously as a temporary worker for a certain period known as the vesting period.
From January 1, 2024, the period of continuous earning of more than four years is reduced to three years.
Protection against sexual harassment
From 1 January 2024, the Working Environment Act states that employees have the right to protection against sexual harassment in addition to protection against harassment.
Statutory definitions of the terms “harassment” and “sexual harassment” have also been introduced, corresponding to the definitions given in the Equality and Discrimination Act.
Additionally, the Working Environment Act clearly states that safety representatives are also responsible for the psychological working environment of employees.
“Music geek. Coffee lover. Devoted food scholar. Web buff. Passionate internet guru.”
