Legislative and Regulatory Amendments

Increase in Retirement Age

In 2024, the Ministry proposed raising the retirement age for civil servants and abolishing the general right to set company-specific age limits under the Working Environment Act (“WEA“) Section 15-13 a. The proposal has now been adopted and will take effect on 1 January 2026.

The changes will remove the possibility of having an internal company age limit lower than 72 years although certain exceptions may apply based on health and safety considerations.

Amendments to the Working Environment Act Section 4-3 – the Psychosocial Working Environment

Earlier this year, the Norwegian Parliament adopted amendments to the WEA Section 4-3 on the psychosocial work environment. The amendments enter into force on 1 January 2026

After the amendments, the law will explicitly state that the general requirement for a “fully satisfactory working environment” also includes psychosocial factors. Non-exhaustive examples of such factors include, among other things, unclear expectations, emotional strain in work with people, high workload or time pressure, and lack of support at work.

The amendments are not intended to materially expand employers’ duties or employees’ rights. However, there is concern that the open-ended wording could increase disputes or trigger complaints. The Labor Inspection Authority is expected to issue guidelines in relation to the amendments.

Stronger Sanctioning Powers for the Labor Inspection Authority

As of July 2025, amendments to Chapter 18 of the Working Environment Act have expanded the enforcement tools available to the Norwegian Labor Inspection Authority. Key changes include the authority’s ability to take necessary measures to enter workplaces (including limited use of physical force), impose on-the-spot fines during inspections, and issue personal fines to company executives of up to just over NOK 3 million.

The purpose of these measures is to strengthen oversight of non-compliant and criminal actors in working life, making it easier to uncover breaches, conduct inspections, and impose effective sanctions.

Amendments to the Rules on Election of Employee Representatives to Ensure Gender Balance

On 1 October 2025, amendments to the Norwegian Representation Regulation (representasjonsforskriften / “RR“) entered into force. The RR governs the election of employee representatives in PLCs and LLCs and was amended to ensure that elections of employee representatives meet the statutory gender balance requirements that entered into force in 2024.

The gender balance requirements depend on the number of employees in the company. As such, the amendments to the RR distinguish between election rules for companies with 200 or fewer employees and those with more than 200 employees. In both cases, the gender balance requirements are calculated separately to employee-elected board members and deputy members.

For companies with 200 employees or fewer, the mainrule is that not all employee-elected board members and deputy members can have the same gender if three or more employee representatives are elected. However, these rules do not apply if more than 80% of employees in the company are of the same gender at the time of the election. For companies with more than 200 employees, the main rule is that the gender balance requirements for shareholder-elected representatives also apply to employee representatives, regardless of whether more than 80% of employees are of the same gender.

Should the seat allocation violate the statutory requirements, underrepresented genders must be promoted. If the statutory gender balance requirements are not fulfilled, the board is not considered lawfully constituted.

New Case-Law

No Duty to Consider Reassignment in Cases of Summary Dismissal: HR-2025-1687-A

In September, the Norwegian Supreme Court unanimously confirmed that employers have no duty to consider reassignment of employees in cases of summary dismissal. This follows up on a 2024 judgment, which confirmed a limited case-based duty to consider alternative work in ordinary terminations based on employee conduct.

The judgment provides important clarification for employers: while a duty to consider reassignment exists in some termination scenarios, it does not apply where the employee’s breach of duty is so serious that summary dismissal is justified. In such cases, it is sufficient for employers to assess whether termination with notice could have been an alternative, but there is no requirement to offer other positions.

Preferential Rights in Settlement Agreements: LG-2024-160104

In line with established practice on severance agreements, the Court of Appeal recently clarified that a severance agreement in which an employee waived their preferential rights under the WEA did not conflict with statutory protections. The Court also held that the agreement was not invalid under the Norwegian Contracts Act. One argument raised by the employee in relation to the latter, concerned the use of English in the agreement; the Court noted, however, that the agreement was written in clear English, which also was the employee’s primary work language.

The Application of Norwegian Law in Cross-Border Employment: TSOS-2024-110119

During the summer, the District Court of Oslo issued an interesting judgment on applicable law for a contractor hired by a Norwegian company but working entirely from home office abroad. The key factor in assessing applicable law is which jurisdiction the work has the closest connection to, and this has typically been determined by where the work is performed. In this case, however, although the work was carried out at the worker’s home in Montenegro, the Court found that it had no real connection to Montenegro and was most closely connected to Norway. While not generalizable to all cross-border work, the case illustrates the considerations employers must make when assessing remote work arrangements – a practice increasingly common since COVID-19.

Upcoming Developments

The EU Equal Pay Directive

The EU’s Equal Pay Directive introduces stricter requirements and enforcement mechanisms to close the gender pay gap, by increasing pay transparency and enable efforts to secure equal pay for equal work. Implementation is due by 7 June 2026, with reporting obligations starting in June 2027. While member states may adopt stricter rules, Norway is expected to largely follow the Directive’s framework.

Key changes include:

• Defining equal work: Using objective criteria such as skills, responsibility, effort, and working conditions, and an expanded definition of pay to include all forms of remuneration.
• Greater pay transparency: Employees are entitled to information about their own pay and the average pay for their category, by gender. Employers must also share pay-setting criteria, and employees may disclose their pay to others.
• Recruitment transparency: Employers must state starting salary or pay range for advertised positions and may not ask about a candidate’s current or past salary.
• Enhanced reporting: Employers must report to authorities, with obligations applying to companies with over 100 employees and become stricter in line with company size.

The Directive allows pay differences only if based on objective, gender-neutral criteria. Overall, it raises the bar for transparency and disclosure regarding equal pay.

Supreme Court to Hear Case on Waiver of Employment Protection: 25-115796SIV-HRET

The Supreme Court will hear a case on 13 January concerning a municipal director who had legally waived his statutory employment protection, which is only permissible for chief executives. The key issue is the limits and requirements on the employer’s assessments and decision-making when terminating an employee who has waived these protections. The Court of Appeals previously found no misuse of managerial prerogative and upheld the termination. The Supreme Court’s ruling is expected to provide further clarity on to what extent there are mandatory requirements for the process and assessment in these type of cases.