New rules relating to absence due to illness from 1 July 2011

Date: 04/07/2011 | Inkluderende arbeidsliv (IA)

The new rules relating to follow-up of employees on sick leave entail changes for employees, employers and physicians. The requirements relating to earlier and closer follow-up will be stricter, as will the sanctions for those who do not follow up their responsibility in the work against absence due to illness.

The most important changes

A follow-up plan must be ready no later than within four weeks
A dialogue meeting must be held within seven weeks
Sanctions for failure to follow up

Download the information folder describing the changes:
Overview of legal amendments (pdf)		Checklist for dialogue meeting (in Norwegian)_(pdf)

Q & A about the changes in rules for follow-up of absence due to illness:

The employer must:

facilitate the work situation in dialogue with the employee when the employee becomes ill
prepare a follow-up plan in cooperation with the employee as early as possible and no later than within four weeks after the first day of the sick leave. The follow-up plan must be sent to the physician/sick-leave certifier
hold a dialogue meeting with the employee as early as possible and no later than within seven weeks of the first day of the sick leave
report to NAV that a plan has been prepared and a meeting held no later than within nine weeks of the first day of the sick leave. If this is not done, NAV may issue a notice of sanctions. If the employer, in spite of notice of sanctions, does not fulfil its duties within three weeks, the employer can be ordered to pay a fine of NOK 5000 for each offence
participate in dialogue meetings under the auspices of NAV in accordance with summons (within 26 weeks of the employee starting sick leave, or earlier if NAV, the employer, sick-leave certifier or employee so requests)
submit the follow-up plan to NAV no later than a week before the dialogue meeting under the auspices of the agency.

The employee must:

cooperate with the employer to find solutions that prevent unnecessary long-term absence due to illness. Failure to participate by the employee may result in discontinuance of the disbursement of sickness benefits.
participate in the preparation and implementation of the follow-up plan as early as possible and no later than within four weeks of the first day of the sick leave
participate in a dialogue meeting under the auspices of the employer as early as possible and no later than within seven weeks of the first day of the sick leave
provide information to the employer and the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration about own work capacity and contribute to review and initiation of suitable facilitation measures
try out work-related activities
participate in dialogue meetings under the auspices of NAV in accordance with summons.

The sick-leave certifier must:

evaluate the employee's opportunities for full or partial work in connection with illness. It is therefore also important that the sick-leave certifier provides the most thorough information as possible when this evaluation is made
receive the follow-up plan from the employer four weeks after employee was granted sick leave. The follow-up plan must be prepared by the employer in cooperation with the employee on sick leave and contain a plan for how the employee should return to work, possible facilitation at the workplace, etc.
participate in dialogue meetings under the auspices of the employer in accordance with summons no later than within seven weeks of the first day of the sick leave
evaluate the opportunity for work-related activity after eight weeks of sick leave. The information received by the sick-leave certifier through the follow-up plan and participation in the dialogue meeting may be useful in connection with this assessment
participate in dialogue meetings under the auspices of NAV in accordance with summons
in the event of failure to participate in seven dialogue meetings, the sick-leave certifier may be fined about NOK 10 000.