Breaches of the Working Environment Act

Several breaches of the Working Environment Act in OAG

In the last years, the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) has reviewed 423 violations of the Working Environment Act’s provisions on overtime and the agreement on flexible working hours in the Norwegian state.

According to the financial newspaper Dagens Næringsliv, law and rule violations have increased in the period 2014 and 2016, before a decline in 2017. So far this year there have been disclosed 88 breaches of legislation and regulations.

It is mainly in connection with the finalisation of reports to the Norwegian Parliament and at larger individual events that the employees have worked too much overtime.

– In essence, it is the permitted limit for overtime work per day, seven days and four consecutive weeks that have been exceeded, says Audit Advisor, Jens Arild Gunvaldsen at OAG.

He says that they are viewing the matter as being serious and that measures have been taken to comply with the rules.

– After the routines were tightened, the number of violations has decreased. This indicates that the measures that we have implemented have an effect, Gunvaldsen states.