From 1 January 2024, all staffing agencies that hire out labour in Norway must apply for authorisation from the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority. It is illegal to hire labour from a staffing enterprise without such authorisation.
All staffing enterprises that hire out labour in Norway must apply for authorisation from the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority. Only staffing enterprises that have such an authorisation can legally hire out workers.
A staffing enterprise is an enterprise whose purpose is to hire out labour. Hired-out labour means workers who are employed by the staffing enterprise, while their work is directed by the principal/client or entity hiring them.
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In the application, everyone must include
Staffing enterprises that are not registered as a limited company (aksjeselskap, AS) or public limited company (allmennaksjeselskap, ASA) in Norway, or an equivalent AS or ASA in another EEA country, must attach a guarantee from a bank or an insurance company.
Staffing enterprises that are registered abroad must attach documentation of their registration from their home country.
Read more about the attachments and the content of the application below.
You must ensure that you are listed in and have updated information in relevant public registers:
All staffing enterprises that hire out labour as staffing enterprises in Norway must be officially authorised from 1 January 2024. All companies whose purpose is to hire out labour must apply to the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority for authorisation.
It is the main legal entity (hovedenhet) in the company that applies for authorisation as a staffing enterprise on behalf of all sub-entities (underenhet) in the company.
Foreign staffing enterprises must also apply for authorisation as staffing enterprises if they intend to hire out labour in Norway.
Companies without employees shall not apply for authorisation as a staffing enterprise.
Sole proprietorships (ENK) without employees and public limited companies (AS) where the owner is the sole employee shall not apply for authorisation as a staffing enterprise.
This is because the purchase of services from an organisation consisting of only one person (ENK or AS where the owner is the sole employee) will not be considered hiring (innleie) under the Working Environment Act.
This is in line with the Ministry of Labour and Social Inclusion's guide Innleie av arbeidskraft (Hiring of labour, regjeringen.no, in Norwegian only).
The application form was amended on 13 December 2023 to make it clearer that public limited companies (AS) where the owner is the sole employee shall not apply for authorisation.
Enterprises without employees, sole proprietorships and limited companies where the owner is the only employee may apply for authorisation if they plan to hire employees in the near future. This will be checked by the Labour Inspection Authority afterwards. If the Labour Inspection Authority finds that no more employees have been hired, this will be grounds for withdrawing an authorisation as a staffing agency.
Enterprises that only provide recruitment services (arbeidsformidling) are not covered by the regulations on public authorisation of staffing enterprises. They should therefore not apply for authorisation.
Recruitment enterprises are not covered by the regulations because this is not hiring. A recruitment service actively connects a job seeker and an employer to establish an employer/employee relationship. The person who is to perform the work is employed directly by the enterprise that needs labour and is not employed by the intermediary enterprise.
However, enterprises that engage in both recruitment services and the hiring out of labour as staffing enterprises, are covered by the regulation because their purpose is to hire out labour. They must therefore apply for authorisation.
Read more in section 25 of the Labour Market Act (in Norwegian), (lovdata.no).
There are different documentation requirements for being approved as a staffing enterprise, based on the type of company you have and whether the company is registered in Norway or not.
Below you will find information about what the application must contain to fulfil the documentation requirements. All documentation must be in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or English, or translated into Norwegian or English.
You must have a safety representative (verneombud) to be authorised. The requirement for a safety representative applies to all employees in the entire organisation, regardless of their work tasks and employment percentage (full-time equivalent percentage).
If you have fewer than five employees, you can choose between having a safety representative or agreeing on another arrangement.
If you regularly have 30 or more employees, you are also obliged to have a working environment committee (arbeidsmiljøutvalg, AMU).
On 1 January 2024, the rules regarding internal safety services (vernetjeneste) in the Working Environment Act was changed. The new requirements are that you must have a safety representative if you have 5 or more employees. Previously, the requirement was 10 or more employees. If you now have 30 or more employees, you must also have a working environment committee. Previously, the requirement was 50 or more employees. You must fulfil the new requirements to be authorised.
If you have a safety representative, you must provide this information about the safety representative:
Provide the information for the safety representative you have at the time you apply for authorisation. If you have several safety representatives, you must enter information about the main safety representative.
If you have another arrangement than a safety representative, you must upload a written agreement on this arrangement. The agreement must be signed by all employees.
If you have a working environment committee, you must attach a meeting notice or an overview showing
The meeting notice or overview must be from the most recent meeting of the working environment committee.
All employees must have written employment contracts. You must tick off which of these types of employment contracts you have in your enterprise:
You must attach one contract of employment per group of employees (e.g. full-time, part-time and temporary) you hire out to companies. You do not need to attach employment contracts for all employees at the staffing enterprise.
The contracts of employment you attach must be filled in.
In the application form, you must state how much overtime supplement the employees have. If you only hire out employees in particularly independent posts (særlig uavhengige stillinger), you must select at least 40 per cent overtime supplement to be able to proceed in the application form.
If you have a combination of employees in ordinary posts and particularly independent posts, select the overtime supplement for the employees in ordinary posts.
In your application, you must answer questions about how you as a staffing enterprise ensure equal treatment of pay and working conditions in connection with the hiring-out of labour. In your application, you must include a written procedure showing how you ensure this.
The procedure must ensure that you fulfil the rules on equal treatment of pay and working conditions. It must describe how you ensure that the hired-out employees have at least the same conditions as they would have had if they had been employed by the hirer to perform the same work.
The procedure must state how you as a staffing enterprise obtain information about pay and working conditions from the hirer, and what information you obtain. As a staffing enterprise, you must obtain information from the hirer about:
These are minimum requirements for a written procedure for equal treatment of pay and working conditions.
Read more about equal treatment of pay and working conditions for staffing enterprises.
All employers must take out private occupational injury insurance (yrkesskadeforsikring) for their employees. You must document that you have taken out such insurance. The insurance is intended to ensure financial compensation for employees in the event of occupational injury.
You must upload a copy of the page in the insurance certificate that shows that the organisation has an active occupational injury insurance. The page must show the insurance period and the name of your organisation.
These enterprises must include documentation of their legal form in the application:
The documentation that must be attached to the application is a certificate of registration from the public registration authority in the home country. The documentation must be in Norwegian or English.
These enterprises do not need to submit documentation of their legal form in the application:
Documentation of a guarantee from a bank or insurance company must show that you fulfil the minimum guarantee requirement of NOK 30,000. Such documentation may, for example, be a bank statement from the bank. The documentation must be in Norwegian or English.
All foreign enterprises that do not have a permanent place of business or registered office in Norway must have a Norwegian representative. The representative must be
You must provide the name, address and contact information of the Norwegian representative.
You will automatically receive an authorisation decision as soon as you have submitted your application. To be able to submit an application, you must fulfil all the requirements for authorisation.
If you fulfil the requirements for authorisation, you will
If you do not meet the requirements for authorisation, you will
Even if you have been granted authorisation, the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority can subsequently manually check that you meet the requirements for authorisation. If it turns out that you still do not fulfil the requirements, you will
If your authorisation is withdrawn, you will not be able to legally hire out labour as a staffing enterprise. To be authorised, you must fulfil the requirements and reapply for authorisation.
A withdrawal of authorisation is an individual decision that can be appealed. Normal case processing rules apply. How to appeal (only in Norwegian).
You will receive a response to your application in Altinn (altinn.no).
After you have submitted your application, the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority can manually check whether you meet the requirements for authorisation. We may also request further documentation. If it turns out that you still do not fulfil the requirements, we may withdraw your authorisation.
After the application has been submitted, all authorised staffing enterprises will be included in the public overview of authorised staffing enterprises (in Norwegian).
All businesses that are authorised as staffing enterprises must confirm each year that they continue to meet the requirements for authorisation (annual report).
You must therefore submit an annual report to the Labour Inspection Authority by the deadline in order to retain your authorisation. You must submit the report using a separate form on Altinn; see below.
In the report, you must merely confirm that you meet the authorisation requirements. You are not to include any documentation or attachments.
You must submit the annual report via a form in Altinn.
You will receive a notification from us in Altinn well in advance of the deadline for submitting the annual report. In your Altinn inbox, you will have access to a form which you must complete and submit.
The deadline for submitting the annual report is 12 months after the date of the decision granting your authorisation.
You will receive a notification in Altinn regarding the annual report well in advance of the submission deadline. The deadline that applies to you is stated in this notification.
The deadline for submitting the annual report is 12 months after the date of the decision granting your authorisation.
You will receive a notification in Altinn regarding the annual report well in advance of the submission deadline. The deadline that applies to you is stated in this notification.
All staffing enterprises must hold an authorisation to have the status ‘legal – authorised’ in the register of authorised staffing enterprises.
If you do not submit the annual report by the deadline, we may revoke your authorisation. You will then be given the status ‘illegal – not authorised’ in the register, and you will no longer be able to legally hire out staff as a staffing enterprise in Norway.
All authorised staffing enterprises must confirm that they continue to meet all the requirements for authorisation set out in the Regulations on the Public Authorisation of Staffing Enterprises.
In the annual report, you must confirm that you meet the requirements regarding:
Some staffing enterprises must also confirm that they still have an equity guarantee from a bank or an insurance company. This applies to:
The Labour Inspection Authority obtains information on the number of employees in the staffing enterprise from public registers. In the annual report, we ask you to adjust the number of employees if
Companies that did not have employees (workers) at the time they applied for authorisation must confirm that they have had employees during the last 12 months. The Labour Inspection Authority will be able to check this against information in public registers.
In order to provide staffing services, you must have employees whom you hire out.
Once you have submitted the annual report via Altinn, you will receive a letter confirming that we have received it. If you meet the requirements for authorisation, you will retain your authorisation, and this will be stated in a letter from us.
If the annual report shows that you do not meet the requirements, you will receive a notice that you may lose your authorisation as a staffing enterprise. You must then log in to Altinn to respond to the notice by the deadline.
Read the full notice and respond to it using a separate form which you will find in your Altinn inbox. If you do not respond by the deadline, the Labour Inspection Authority will revoke your authorisation.
Once we have received the form with your response, the Labour Inspection Authority may conclude that you still meet the requirements for authorisation. You will then receive a new letter confirming that you retain your authorisation as a staffing enterprise.
If the information you provide in your response to the notice indicates that you do not meet the requirements for authorisation, the Labour Inspection Authority will issue a decision to revoke your authorisation.
You will receive the decision in a letter via Altinn. At the same time, you will be given the status ‘illegal – not authorised’ in the Labour Inspection Authority’s register of staffing enterprises, and you will no longer be permitted to hire out labour as a staffing enterprise.
You may appeal against a decision (in Norwegian) to revoke your authorisation.
If the Labour Inspection Authority revokes your authorisation, you are entitled to reapply for authorisation.
If you are no longer going to engage in the hiring out of labour as a staffing enterprise, you can use the annual report form to notify the authorities of this. You will then automatically be removed from the public register of authorised staffing enterprises.
Every three years, you must also submit updated documentation showing that you still meet the requirements for authorisation.
You will receive a letter from us stating the deadline that applies to you and when you should submit the documentation.