In December 2004, the Norwegian government and social partners presented an action plan to combat bullying at work. The initiative has been taken in line with a 2001 tripartite agreement on 'an inclusive working life' and will run for a period of three years.
On 15 December 2004, the Prime Minister, Kjell Magne Bondevik, presented an action plan drawn up by the government and the social partners to combat bullying at work. The initiative is in line with a 2003 joint declaration (NO0311104F) to prolong the parties' 2001 'agreement on an inclusive working life' (see below). Recognising the importance of taking measures at company level, the main objective of the action plan is to create greater awareness and accountability with regard to bullying among the social partners at this level. Bullying and harassment have risen up the agenda in recent years, which has resulted in a proposal to clarify the legal position on the issue (NO0403102F). The most recent figures from Statistics Norway (Statistisk Sentralbyrå, SSB), covering 2003, indicate that 2% of Norwegian employees experience bullying by other work colleagues more than twice a month. If sexual harassment is included, the figure is probably higher (between 3% and 4%).
On 3 October 2001, the government and central social partner organisations concluded an agreement of intent with a view to creating a more 'inclusive working life' (inkluderende arbeidsliv, IA), known as the 'IA agreement' (NO0110107F). The main objective of this initiative is to reduce the rate of sickness absence, and to take better advantage of the human resources represented by persons with disabilities and older employees. In the government and social partners’ December 2003 joint declaration on prolonging the IA agreement, they expressed a particular wish to focus on the problem of bullying and harassment in the workplace. The declaration also pointed to the importance of directing efforts to the company level, as the main arena for implementing the measures in the IA agreement.
The main objective of the new action plan is to create greater awareness among the social partners at company level and give them responsibility for combating it. Bullying (or harassment) is defined in the action plan as 'when one or more individuals over time are subject to systematically negative actions and behaviour from one or more people without being able to defend themselves' (unofficial translation). The action plan emphasises the two-way relationship between the work environment - or more precisely the 'psychosocial' work environment - and bullying, and states that measures must also be directed at changes to the organisational work environment. To succeed in this aim, it is seen as important to clarify roles and responsibilities. Although the main responsibility is, according to the legal framework, vested in the employer, employees, as well as other actors - both internal health and safety officers and external regulatory bodies - have an important contribution to make. To this end, the plan lists a number of measures to be taken to combat bullying:
- the development of written information material, education and training of those with work environment functions (ie health and safety officers), and clarification of internal roles and responsibilities with regard to health and safety issues in the workplace, as well as of the supervisory roles of external health and safety bodies, such as the Labour Inspection Authority (Arbeidstilsynet);
- improving knowledge about bullying in the workplace among central-level health and safety bodies, through competence development;
- exposing the financial, health-related and social consequences of bullying, and collecting and disseminating relevant information in cooperation with relevant research and development institutions; and
- the development of tools to deal with the problem in companies, and of methods or procedures placing the issue of bullying at the heart of the Labour Inspection Authority’s supervisory work.
The Labour Inspection Authority is vested with the responsibility of implementing the plan, and has been awarded extra funds to this end - NOK 9.5 million for 2005. The plan of action will run for a period of three years, after which it will be subject to an evaluation by the social partners and the government.