Background information

On 16 March 2020, the state employer and the central organisations in the state sector (Unio, LO Stat, Akademikerne and YS Stat ) made an agreement on reduction of rest period, extension of overtime and amendment to the flexitime agreement. The purpose of the agreement was mainly to help reduce the use of resources in connection with working time planning in the state agencies, and reduce insecurity for the employees, as long as the extraordinary situation related to the coronavirus was ongoing.

Content of measure

On 16 March, the state employer and the central organisations in the state sector (Unio, LO Stat, Akademikerne and YS Stat) made an agreement on reduction of rest period, extension of overtime and amendment to the flexitime agreement.

• The parties agreed that the minimum rest period between two shifts should be reduced from 11 to 8 hours in agencies which service is essential to society.
• In such agencies, the collective agreement expanded the limits to overtime (from 10 to 20 hours per 7 days), and gave the employer the opportunity to averaging working hours.
• The limit of total working hours in any 24-hour period were raised from 10 to 16 hours.

The agreement was made pursuant to section 10-12 (4) in the Working Environment Act that gives larger trade unions right to enter into a collective agreement that deviates from the law's working hours provisions. To make it possible for state employees to work from home and to manage a difficult situation when schools were closed and children had to stay home, the parties to the state sector agreement agreed to postpone the regulation of core time in the flexitime agreement under the current circumstances. The parties agreed that the content of the agreement cannot be invoked or otherwise used in later processes between the parties when the situation is back to normal.

Use of measure

No information to date.

Contents

• Health and safety
• Working time flexibility

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Employees in standard employment Workers in care facilities Workers in essential services	Sector specific set of companies Companies providing essential services	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
Social partners jointly Trade unions Employers' organisations	No special funding required

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Agreed (outcome) incl. social partner initiative	Agreed (outcome) incl. social partner initiative
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Social partners jointly
• Main level of involvement: Peak or cross-sectoral level

Involvement

The collective agreement on working time during the COVID-19 pandemic was negotiated by the state employer and the central organisations in the state sector (Unio, LO Stat, Akademikerne and YS Stat), to facilitate crisis management. By taking such action, the social partners wanted to keep regulation of working time in a collective agreement and avoid provisional legislation.

Views and reactions

The social partners are supportive of regulation through collective agreements and quickly reached an agreement.

Sources

• 16 March 2020: Central working time agreements entered into during the corona crisis (www.fagforbundet.no)
• 29 April 2020: Extends the corona agreement on working hours in the state (akademikerne.no)