Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2007, published 97th ILC session (2008)

Employment Promotion and Protection against Unemployment Convention, 1988 (No. 168) - Norway (Ratification: 1990)

Article 21 of the Convention (suspension of benefit). With reference to its previous comments which it has been making for a number of years, the Committee recalls that, according to section G.4 of the guidelines of the Directorate of Labour, in order to be regarded as a genuine jobseeker, an applicant for unemployment benefit must be willing and able to accept any work that is remunerated according to a collective wage agreement or a local custom. Section G.4.1 details that the obligation to take any work means that applicants for employment cannot make reservations as regards the type of occupation they will work in and must be willing to accept any work they are physically and mentally fit for, even in occupations for which they are not trained or in which they have no previous experience. The applicant’s acquired experience and length of service in former occupations – criteria which are expressly mentioned for assessing the suitability of employment in Article 21(2) of the Convention – are not taken into account when the decision on the withdrawal of the benefit is taken following the jobseeker’s refusal to accept the employment offered on these grounds. Such guidance of the employment offices leads astray of the aim of the Convention which consists precisely in offering unemployed persons protection during the first 26 weeks of unemployment from the obligation to take up jobs that are not suitable to their acquired professional and social status. The Committee regrets to note that the Government’s report merely repeats the “reasons why there is no initial period in which the beneficiary may refuse jobs offered”. The Committee therefore once again urges the Government to bring the guidelines of the Directorate of Labour into conformity with Norway’s obligations under the Convention and the European Code of Social Security, which forbid applying sanctions for refusing to accept unsuitable job offers at least during the initial period of unemployment.

Article 26 (special provisions for new applicants for employment). In the direct request of 2006, the Government was asked to specify, in accordance with paragraph 2 of Article 26 of the Convention, which three of the ten listed categories of persons it undertakes to protect, what concrete social benefits and services are placed at their disposal, and what additional categories of the new applicants for employment would benefit from such protection in line with paragraph 3 of this Article. In reply, the Government has provided information on the social benefits to persons who are temporarily or permanently outside the workforce due to sickness, disability, rehabilitation, unemployment or social assistance. The Committee wishes to point out that these categories of persons do not correspond to those expressly mentioned under items (a) to (j) of Article 26(1). It would therefore ask the Government to indicate measures taken or contemplated to give full effect to the provisions of Article 26 of the Convention in law and in practice.

[The Government is asked to reply in detail to the present comments in 2008.]