Safety Representative

The purpose of the arrangement is for the safety representative to

• act as an intermediary between the employees and the employer, by assisting the employer in the preventative HSE work (making sure employees are safe and not subjected to danger); and
• be an important part of the employees’ right to participation and co-determination in the workplace. Through the safety representative, the employees have the ability to influence the undertaking’s efforts to create a safe and secure working environment.

The Working Environment Act requires all workplaces to have at least one safety representative. Undertakings with fewer than 5 employees may agree to make other arrangements.

If the safety representative is made aware or learns of improper working conditions in the workplace, they have a duty to notify the employer. This includes:

• danger to life or health,
• harassment and discrimination, and
• injury and illness.

The safety representative’s primary responsibility is to monitor the employer to ensure compliance with the working environment rules and regulations. One key foundation for this is for the employer to keep the safety representative informed on the working environment in the undertaking.

The employer is responsible for making sure the undertaking has a sound working environment

It will always be the employer who is responsible for making sure the undertaking has a sound working environment. The safety representative shall help the employer identify risk factors and assist in finding measures to ensure that the work does not negatively impact the employees’ health and welfare.

If the safety representative learns of circumstances that may expose workers to danger or accidents in the workplace, they shall immediately notify the employer and give the employer the chance to rectify the situation within a reasonable period of time. The safety representative shall determine what constitutes a reasonable period of time in each instance.

What if the employer is unable or unwilling to rectify the working environment issues?

If so, the safety representative may contact the working environment committee (arbeidsmiljøutvalget), if the undertaking has one. The safety representative may also contact the Labour Inspection Authority for advice and guidance.

The safety representative represents all employees in matters relating to health, safety and the environment (HSE). This means that the safety representative shall also represent hired-in employees and independent contractors who work in close association with the undertaking. The safety representative therefore does not represent the employer or the person who manages the undertaking on behalf of the employer. The organisation chart of the undertaking shall indicate who this is. Employees who are assigned to follow up or manage specific work tasks and processes may be represented by the safety representative, or preferably the senior safety representative. This applies, for example, to foremen or supervisors who follow the same working time scheme as those they supervise. Although these employees have managerial duties, they are not part of the senior management of the undertaking.

The safety representative shall not represent individual persons in personnel matters

As the safety representative is intended to represent all employees, they should be hesitant to serve as the party representative for an individual employee in personnel matters. In such cases, the safety representative may be present at meetings as an observer and adviser to ensure the process is properly handled. Read more about this in the section “What is the difference between a safety representative and an employee representative?”.

In HSE cases, however, the safety representative may address issues that only affect an individual employee.

The safety representative and senior safety representative are not bound by confidentiality vis-à-vis the employer in cases that may have serious consequences for the working environment, such as:

• danger to life or health,
• harassment and discrimination, and
• injury and disease.

Beyond this, the safety representative and senior safety representative are bound by a general duty of confidentiality concerning information they acquire as part of their role, specifically:

• information of a private nature; and
• information that others may exploit for their own commercial purposes. This includes information about technical devices, production methods, business analyses and calculations or trade secrets.

This duty of confidentiality entails, among other things, that the safety representative and senior safety representative cannot discuss or communicate any information that is covered by confidentiality, unless the concerned party expressly grants the safety representative permission to do so. The duty of confidentiality does not apply if it is necessary to forward the information in-house to mitigate accident or health risks in the undertaking.

It can be difficult to spot the difference between the role of safety representative and the role of employee representative with a trade union (tillitsvalgt). But these are two separate roles.

The employee representative’s sole responsibility is to protect the interests of the union members under the collective agreement. Membership in a trade union is not compulsory, but it is a right employees in Norway have.

The role of the employee representative with a trade union is not regulated by law, but follows from a collective agreement or basic agreement. Among other things, employee representatives protect the employees’ rights under contracts, collective agreement, etc.

What are the roles of the employee representative and the safety representative in personnel matters?

Ordinary terminations, personnel matters and pay disputes are therefore not the responsibility of the safety representative – they are the responsibility of the employee representative. The safety representative may be asked to assist, however, because not all employees are members of a trade union. In such cases, it is important that the safety representative makes it clear that they are not representing the party, but they may be present as an observer during meetings, to contribute advice.

In cases where the issues or conflicts are caused by the working environment, or have consequences for the working environment, the safety representative may also play a role.

It is possible to be both an employee representative and a safety representative at the same time, but this would entail protecting the interests of one’s own members (e.g. in a dispute), whereas the role of the safety representative is to safeguard the working environment of all employees. It is not in conflict with laws and regulations to serve as both an employee representative and as safety representative at the same time, but the Labour Inspection Authority does not recommend it, as these two roles easily could end up in conflict with each other. Any person who holds both roles, must be very careful to distinguish between the two.

Among other things, safety representatives shall:

• actively participate in the undertaking’s HSE work. This includes the employees’ psychosocial work environment;
• consult on the planning and implementation of measures that impact the working environment in their safety area;
• consult on the establishment, execution and maintenance of systematic HSE work (internal control); and
• participate at all stages of work on the internal control system and may personally take initiative in several stages.

Safety inspections

The safety representative shall carry out regular safety inspections, where the goal is to make sure the undertaking complies with statutory HSE requirements. In order to fulfil this role, the safety representative shall regularly carry out systematic inspections of the workplace within their designated safety area. 

It is the safety representative who shall take the initiative to plan and conduct these safety inspections. However, it is recommended that the manager or another employer representative also participates. The employer has the overall responsibility for HSE in the undertaking, and by participating in the safety inspection, management gains better insight into the actual working environment within the company. This, in turn, facilitates quicker handling of non-conformities and the implementation of risk-reducing measures. 

Depending on the undertaking’s activities, the safety representative shall also monitor to ensure that:

• machinery, technical devices, chemical substances and various work processes do not pose a safety risk to workers;
• protective devices and personal protective equipment are available in suitable quantities, and that such equipment is readily available and in good working condition;
• workers receive necessary instruction, practice and training;
• the work is adapted, so that workers can perform the work in a manner that is not harmful to their health or safety; and 
• notices of occupational accidents are submitted to the Labour Inspection Authority.

If the Labour Inspection Authority performs an inspection, the safety representative shall participate. The safety representative shall follow up to make sure the employer complies with any orders and guidelines given by the Labour Inspection Authority.

The safety representative shall listen to their colleagues and consult with them before solutions are presented to the employer. If the undertaking has an occupational health service (bedriftshelsetjeneste) or safety personnel, it would be natural for the safety representative to collaborate with them.

All undertakings with 30 or more employees (or 10–30 employees if one of the undertaking’s parties demand it) must appoint a working environment committee (WEC). If the undertaking does not have a working environment committee, the safety representative must also:

• assess and prepare statements on matters concerning the occupational health service, safety representative and working environment committee (the internal safety service);
• assess training programmes that have an impact on the working environment;
• process construction or reconstruction plans that require a building application and approval from the Labour Inspection Authority;
• process other plans of significant importance for the working environment, such as machinery purchases, measures for increased productivity (rationalization) and other restructuring, working time arrangements, safety measures and the establishment and maintenance of internal control systems; and
• review reports on occupational illnesses, occupational accidents and occupational hygiene surveys, and contribute to the employer investigating the cause of the problems and implementing measures to prevent reoccurrence.

The employer must make arrangements to give the safety representative the time they need to carry out the safety work in an appropriate manner.
Normally, these tasks and responsibilities shall be carried out during ordinary working hours.

In principle, the safety representative personally determines how much time is needed to properly carry out the tasks and responsibilities of the role. If the safety representative’s assessment conflicts with the employer’s assessment, the safety representative may contact the Labour Inspection Authority to consult on the matter.

The employer and the safety representative should discuss the regular and routine tasks of the safety representative, so that the workload is adjusted with the other responsibilities of the safety representative.

Please note that it must at all times be possible for the safety representative to suspend their work if unforeseen situations arise that require the safety representative’s intervention.

Normally, all undertakings must have at least one safety representative. All employees are counted, including any part-time or temporary employees.

If the undertaking has fewer than 5 employees (1–4 employees), the employer and the employees may agree upon a different arrangement instead of a safety representative. The number of employees includes both permanent employees (full time and part-time) and temporary employees.

Content requirements for agreements on different arrangements

An agreement on a different arrangement where there is no safety representative must be made in writing and include a description of how matters of safety specifically shall be handled.

Among other things, the agreement must include information on:

• who the employee’s representative or contact person is;
• necessary working environment measures;
• how often meetings are to be held and where;
• how matters of safety shall be reported;
• how the employer, in consultation with the employees, shall handle risks;
• the employer’s duties in HSE work; and
• the employee’s duty to participate.

The agreement period may not exceed two years, and all employees must sign the agreement.

When must the “different arrangement” be replaced by a safety representative?

• If the undertaking’s number of employees increases to 5 or more during the agreement period, a safety representative must be appointed. All employees are counted, including any part-time or temporary employees.
• The Labour Inspection Authority may, in connection with inspections and based on an assessment of the risks present, order undertakings with fewer than 5 employees to appoint a safety representative.

Regardless of whether or not an undertaking has a safety representative, the employer must ensure that all employees receive necessary training and information on how to safely carry out the work.

Template for agreement concerning a different arrangement

The Labour Inspection Authority has prepared a template that can be used to conclude an agreement between the employer and the employee concerning a different arrangement.

This template is intended as an aid in drawing up the agreement; the undertaking is not obligated to use the template. The template comes in PDF format, where

• some content comes pre-filled and the text is fixed
• some content provides guidelines on information that must be included in the agreement

The document can be accessed here:

Safety representative – agreement concerning alternative arrangement (pdf)

If you are having problems downloading the template, you can contact Signform via e-mail: info@signform.no

The number of safety representatives needed in an undertaking will depend on the undertaking’s size, risk factors and working conditions. As a norm, there should be one safety representative per unit or shift if so indicated by the risk factors present in the undertaking.

There is no definite yes or no answer to the question of whether undertakings that hire seasonal workers must appoint a safety representative, even if the undertaking has more than five employees during certain seasons.

In an inspection, Arbeidstilsynet (the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority) will perform an assessment, taking into account the following factors: 

• The number of temporary employees hired by the enterprise annually.
• The duration of temporary employments each year
• The nature of the work
• The risk factors present in the workplace
• The predictability of work for the employer (does the employer know that the same employees will return to work for the enterprise again next year?)
• Is the cost of compliance for the undertaking proportionate to the presumed profit? Are the time and costs of safety representative training reasonable if the employee is only going to be working for the undertaking for a few weeks or months?

If an employer who hires seasonal workers decides not to appoint a safety representative, the employer must prepare written documentation of having considered all the factors on this list.

In other respects, undertakings with seasonal workers are subject to the same requirements as undertakings with fewer than five employees. Read more about this in the section “Undertakings with fewer than five employees may agree to a different arrangement (template for agreement)”.

Please note that the Arbeidstilsynet may come to a different conclusion than the employer in connection with an inspection. In such cases, Arbeidstilsynet may order the undertaking to appoint a safety representative.

Each safety representative shall have their own clearly defined safety area (verneområde). This area should be small enough that it is possible for the safety representative to have full overview of the area, in order to appropriately carry out the tasks and responsibilities of the role. The size of the area is not necessarily dependent on the number of workers – the nature of the work and the working conditions in general must also be taken into account. If the undertaking has more than one unit or shift, one safety representative shall normally be appointed for each unit or shift.

If the undertaking has a working environment committee

In undertakings with a working environment committee (WEC), the committee is responsible for dividing the workplace up into safety areas, thus also determining the minimum number of safety representatives.

If the undertaking does not have a working environment committee

In undertakings that do not have a working environment committee, the local trade union(s) or representatives of the employees (where there are no trade unions) shall decide the division, after consulting with the employer.
Read more about the division into safety areas in Section 3-1 of the Regulations concerning Organisation, Management and Employee Participation.

If the safety representative considers that the life or health of employees is in immediate danger and such danger cannot be averted by other means, the safety representative has the authority to halt the work. The term ‘immediate danger’ means the danger is present in the moment.

One example of immediate danger is workers working on a roof with no fall protection or using a saw with no protective device.

Long-term harm to health after short-term exposure

The safety representative may halt work in cases where there is a risk of harm to health in the long term. The determining factor is whether the danger is imminent in the sense that harm to health may occur after short-term exposure, even if the effects of what the worker has been or may be exposed to, will not manifest until later.

Examples:

• The safety representative may halt demolition work if they suspect the rubble contains asbestos. Demolition of buildings with eternit siding (containing asbestos), for example, could be halted until the employer has measured the potential asbestos content.
• Some occupations come with the risk of threats and violence. Such experiences may cause delayed injuries in persons subjected to them. If the safety representative deems that the measures implemented by the employer to mitigate these risks are not sufficient, the safety representative may halt work until satisfactory measures have been implemented.

Read more about violence and threats in the workplace (in Norwegian).

Long-term harm to health after long-term exposure

The safety representative may not halt work if disease or injury only occurs after long-term exposure. Such cases are less acute and may be prevented in other ways that do not involve the halting of work.

If the safety representative halts work, they must immediately notify the employer. The notice must include information:

• that the work has been halted, and
• on the reason why the work has been halted.

The safety representative must consider whether to halt all or some of the undertaking’s activities to prevent danger to life or health. If the situation, for example, involves unsafe work on a roof, it will be sufficient to call the workers down from the roof. Work that is performed elsewhere in the workplace and that does not entail any risk, may continue.

The safety representative shall help the employer find solutions that may help enable work to resume.

If they agree on a solution, work may be resumed without contacting the Labour Inspection Authority.

If no solution can be found, the employer or the safety representative must contact the Labour Inspection Authority. The employer and the safety representative must first try to resolve the disagreement, but if the employer either does not agree that work should be halted, or if the parties cannot agree on which solutions are needed before work can resume, the Labour Inspection Authority may be contacted.

If the employer or safety representative contacts the Labour Inspection Authority, work cannot resume until the Labour Inspection Authority has decided that work may resume.

The senior safety representative has the same authority to halt dangerous work as the safety representative. Therefore, the senior safety representative may halt work independently of the safety representative’s assessment.

However, if a safety representative has halted work, the senior safety representative cannot overrule this decision. Similarly, the safety representative cannot overrule the senior safety representative’s decision to halt work.

The safety representative is not liable for losses incurred as the result of halting work due to danger to life and health

The safety representative is not liable for any economic loss incurred by the undertaking as a result of halting work due to imminent danger to the worker’s life and health. This also applies in cases where it turns out that the safety representative overestimated the risk and the halting of work was unnecessary.

The safety representative may be held liable if the work was halted for reasons beyond danger to life and health

If work is halted for reasons other than danger to life and health, the safety representative may be liable for damages. This includes situations where work is halted in demonstration against measures the employer wants to implement, if such measures are unrelated to dangers to life and health.

Things to consider when you are appointing a safety representative

• It is the employees who decide who should be safety representative.
• Safety representatives are elected by the employees.
• The employer, or a person managing the undertaking on behalf of the employer, cannot be elected safety representative.
• The safety representative should be a respected and skilled employee (trusted by the employees), with at least two years experience in the undertaking and good insight into work tasks.
• Safety representatives are elected for two years at a time.
• Safety representatives can be reelected for multiple periods, unless replacement is indicated for special reasons. Reelection could be beneficial, because it could take a while to familiarize oneself with the work, and experience is important.

Supervisors can be elected safety representative, but the Labour Inspection Authority does not recommend this solution. The reason is that the role of safety representative easily conflicts with the role of supervisor.

All employees have a duty to participate in organized HSE work in the workplace, and as such cannot refuse election or appointment as safety representative.

Safety representatives are elected for a period of two years at a time, and cannot be elected for a shorter or longer period than two years.

The role as safety representative can only be resigned if the safety representative:

• leaves the undertaking, or
• transitions to permanent work in a different safety area within the undertaking.

Therefore, the safety representative cannot resign from the role or refuse to carry out the safety representative function.

However, the Labour Inspection Authority does not recommend appointing an unwilling safety representative. In such cases, we recommend a new election, or for the deputy (if the undertaking has one) to step in for the rest of the period.

The employees or the employer cannot demand that a safety representative step down.

The appointment can be made:

• on the basis of a majority vote among the employees; or
• by the local trade unions in accordance with set rules.

Read more about the appointment of safety representatives in Chapter 3 of the Regulations concerning Organisation, Management and Employee Participation.

The employer must ensure that the safety representative receives necessary training to exercise their role responsibly. The minimum requirement is 40 hours of training.

The employer and the Labour Inspection Authority may consider additional training if the tasks or other aspects of the undertaking indicates that additional training is needed.

It may also be relevant with a refresh course at a later stage, but this is not mandatory by law.

In some cases, the employer and the employees may agree to have less than 40 hours of training. Such agreement must be based on the risks in the undertaking indicating that less training will be sufficient. In such cases, an assessment of both the content and the scope of the training must be made.

Such assessments should be made in writing, and must be prepared by the employer and the employees jointly. If the parties cannot agree, the minimum requirement of 40 hours shall apply.

Read more about the requirements of safety representative training in Section 3-19 of the Regulations concerning Organisation, Management and Employee Participation. Duration of the training of safety representatives and members of working environment committees. 

The training can take place on courses organised by various course providers. The safety representative is entitled to participate in courses organized by the local labour union (trade union) where the safety representative is a member.

• The training shall preferably take place during working hours.
• The employer shall cover all costs of the training.
• During training, the safety representative shall be on leave with full pay.
• If the training takes place outside working hours, the safety representative shall be entitled to pay, as if during ordinary working hours, but not to overtime pay. The safety representative shall also be entitled to pay when the training is in the form of remote education completed outside working hours.

Before training, the safety representative’s preparations should include:

• familiarizing themselves with the rules that apply to the safety work;
• acquire any necessary additional knowledge, such as finding out which regulations apply to the work tasks performed in the workplace; and
• ensure access to the Working Environment Act, Working Environment Regulations and the Internal Control Regulations. You can find this legislation here.

Read more about the requirements of training in Section 3-18 of the Regulations concerning Organisation, Management and Employee Participation. Training of safety representatives and members of working environment committees.

All undertakings with more than one safety representative must have a senior safety representative. The senior safety representative coordinates the work of the safety representatives.

Senior safety representatives are either elected among the safety representatives, or another person who holds or has held a position of trust within the undertaking can be appointed. Unlike for safety representatives, a deputy must always be appointed for the senior safety representative.

The appointment can either come as a result of a vote among the safety representatives, or by local trade unions appointing the senior safety representative in accordance with the rules provided in the Regulations concerning Organisation, Management and Employee Participation.

The senior safety representative shall guide and assist the safety representatives, as well as coordinate the work of the safety representatives. In case of doubt concerning how to distribute matters between the safety representatives in the undertaking, the senior safety representative may decide.

Matters that affect several safety areas shall be submitted to the senior safety representative, and it may be natural for the senior safety representative to assume responsibility for the process in such cases. Beyond this, the senior safety representative shall not take on the tasks of the safety representatives, even if the performance of the safety representative is not satisfactory.

The senior safety representative shall be part of the working environment committee as one of the representatives of the employees. It is natural for the senior safety representative to participate in processes that affect the working environment at a general level.

Read more about senior safety representatives in Section 3-5 of the Regulations concerning Organisation, Management and Employee Participation.