The EU is the most important market for Norwegian goods, from salmon to natural gas. But after Norway's election in September, Oslo may get a government where the majority oppose the current European Economic Area agreement.
On 15 April 2021 the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) and the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO) agreed to temporarily extend the interruption period for temporary lay-offs from six weeks to 10. This change will last until 30 September 2021 and makes it easier and less risky for employers to bring temporarily laid-off employees back to work.
What does this change mean?
The change means that the so-called interruption period provided for in Section 7 – 3(7) of the main agreement between LO and the NHO (ie, the period during which temporarily laid-off employees can work without the lay-off being interrupted) is extended from six weeks to 10. This means that temporarily laid-off employees can be brought back to work for up to 10 weeks before:
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A first analysis of working life policies and developments in 2020 shows that the COVID-19 pandemic has in some cases speeded up and in other cases slowed down several policy developments in the EU, Norway and the UK, albeit to varying degrees, and dependent on national contexts. Increased teleworking led to a number of accelerated policy developments to address the new work reality for many employees. The digitisation of enterprises and the use of digital tools by employees became a more dominant topic during the pandemic. However, the crisis also disrupted or deprioritised some policy developments, particularly in areas such as employment regulation, pensions and minimum wages. In many cases, disruptions to policy developments were due to the pandemic’s effects on social dialogue, ranging from deferred negotiations to the closer involvement of social partners in contentious issues. It is not possible to pred
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