Factsheet for measure
NO-2021-52/2114
– measures in Norway
Special agreement covers overtime and pay for municipal workers
Avtale om utvidet kompensasjon i forbindelse med koronapandemien
Background information
Increased demands imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic are being addressed by municipal trade unions and employers through a new agreement setting out temporary rules on overtime. The agreement applies from 20 December 2021 until the end of April 2022.
Rising numbers of infected has led to more people needing treatment and care as well as a lack of caregivers when they have to be quarantined. To make more labour available, the employer’s association KS in the municipal sector has entered into a special agreement with the employee organizations which at least doubles the payment for extra work during the pandemic and increase the amount of overtime employers can impose on employees.
Content of measure
The special agreement on overtime and pay will be applied locally if agreed between the local union and employer and provides for higher overtime rates and limits on overtime hours. Overtime rates are increased to 200% on normal days and 300% on weekends and holidays. The rates also apply to part-time workers above 20 hours a week. The agreement sets a range of daily, weekly and monthly limits to overtime hours. According to the employers’s organisation KS, the agreement allows for more use of overtime, so that the municipalities can mobilise labour. The agreement also gives the employer right to impose more overtime on employees.
Managers who are exempt from the overtime provisions receive in the agreement up to 20 extra days off in 2022. These can also be taken out as extra daytime pay. Teaching staff receive double hourly pay if they take extra tuition (substitute hours) as a result of corona-related absence, or do extra other student-oriented work, such as increased inspection or special follow-up of individual students.
Use of measure
No information to date.
Contents
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Pay increases
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Working time flexibility
Target groups
Actors and funding
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Actors
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Funding
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Trade unions
Employers' organisations
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No special funding required
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Social partners
Social partners' role in
designing the measure
and form of involvement:
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Trade unions
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Employers' organisations
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Role
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Agreed (outcome) incl. social partner initiative
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Agreed (outcome) incl. social partner initiative
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Form
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Not applicable
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Not applicable
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Social partners' role in the
implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:
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Only employers' organisations
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Main level of involvement: Sectoral or branch level
Involvement
Employer’s association and unions in the municipal sector negotiated the special agreement for the sector. The municipal employers found it difficult to staff all services and asked for an measures that could mobilise a larger workforce.
Views and reactions
The social partners are supportive of the measure.
The Leader of the Norwegian Union of Municipal and General Employees (Fagforbundet) says that nobody wanted this agreement, but it was unavoidable on the background of the new round of closure of society.
Sources
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20 December 2021: New agreement on increased corona supplement for municipal employees
(www.fagforbundet.no)
