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Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102) - Norway (RATIFICATION: 1954)

Article 36(3) of the Convention, in conjunction with Article 72. Employment injury benefits for incapacity of less than 30 per cent. Following its previous comments, the Committee notes from the Government’s report that persons with incapacity for work above 30 per cent due to employment injury are entitled to periodic cash benefits under the National Insurance Scheme. In addition, lump-sum payments for loss of future income and for non-economic losses (reduced quality of life) are provided to persons with incapacity for work, including those with incapacity below 30 per cent, under the mandatory Occupational Injury Insurance Scheme ("yrkesskadeforsikringsloven"), which is outside the framework of the National Insurance Scheme.

The Committee recalls that Article 36(1) and (2) of the Convention pursues the primary aim to ensure a permanent compensation, i.e. a periodical benefit in case of permanent total or partial loss of earning capacity caused by an employment injury. As an exception, Article 36(3)(a) of the Convention allows for the conversion of a periodical benefit into a lump-sum payment where the degree of incapacity is slight. The Committee has previously admitted incapacity below 30 per cent as a slight degree and allowed the conversion of periodical benefits into lump-sum payments which should bear an “equitable relationship” to the periodical payment otherwise due. In this respect, the Committee observes that the National Insurance Scheme does not provide any cash benefits in case of incapacity below 30 per cent. The Committee further observes that the compensation provided by the Occupational Injury Insurance Scheme constitutes a different additional payment, which is not made in lieu of a periodical payment otherwise due by the National Insurance Scheme, as in fact it bears no relationship to such a payment.

The Committee also recalls that according to Article 72(1) of the Convention, where the administration is not entrusted to an institution regulated by the public authorities or to a Government department responsible to a legislature, representatives of the persons protected shall participate in the management, or be associated therewith in a consultative capacity, under prescribed conditions. In this respect, the Committee observes from the information provided by the Government that the Occupational Injury Insurance Scheme is administered by private insurance companies. The Committee however observes that the Occupational Injury Insurance Act of 1989 does not indicate whether and how representatives of the persons protected may participate in the management of the Occupational Injury Insurance Scheme.

The Committee further takes note of the statement by the Government that improving the Norwegian Occupational Injury Scheme is part of its political platform. The Government considers the question of whether the National Insurance Scheme should provide disability benefit in the event of occupational injuries when the degree of incapacity is lower than 30 per cent to be a natural part of this work, and this would include considering the question of whether a disability benefit granted at low degrees of incapacity should be commuted into a lump-sum.

In view of the above, the Committee firmly hopes that, in the course of the intended reform, the Government will take the necessary measures to give full effect to Article 36 of the Convention by reducing the minimum threshold for the payment of periodic cash benefits under the National Insurance Scheme below 30 per cent of incapacity, subject to the possibility of commuting such benefits into a lump sum.

The Committee is raising other matters in a request addressed directly to the Government.