New measures to improve safety for cleaners and hotel and restaurant workers

The Norwegian government is extending measures from 1 January 2011 to improve the working conditions of cleaners as well as employees in hotels and restaurants. It is rolling out its regional safety officer scheme, already operating in the construction industry, to cover these two sectors. This will lead to safety officers being appointed by the relevant trade unions to have particular responsibility for working conditions in firms with no health and safety representative.

New regional safety officers

In November 2010, the government extended the regional safety representatives scheme to cover the hotels and restaurants sector and the cleaning industry. The new regulations (in Norwegian) are effective from 1 January 2011.

The government’s intention to extend the scheme was announced in May 2010 and funding for it was set aside in the 2011 state budget. The regional safety officer scheme already operates in the construction industry where it was introduced in 1981. The plan is to appoint 15 regional safety officers; 11 in the hotels and restaurants sector, and four in the cleaning industry.

Under the regional safety officer scheme, officers are appointed for a four-year term by trade unions representing workers in the relevant industries. Employers pay a fee to help finance the scheme. The unions officially employ the safety officers, but their wages and other expenses are reimbursed by the government. Regional safety officers in the hotels and restaurants sector will be appointed by the Norwegian United Federation of Trade Unions (Fellesforbundet), and the officers in the cleaning industry by the Norwegian Union of General Workers (Norsk Arbeidsmandsforbund).

The most important task of the regional safety officer is to monitor the working environment in premises where there are no health and safety representatives, particularly in smaller enterprises. According to the Working Environment Act, companies with 10 or more employees are required to have elected safety officers. Not all companies fulfil this legal requirement, and they are a special concern for the regional safety officers. Companies with fewer than 10 employees are also required to have safety officers, but it is possible for employer and employees to draw up a written agreement that workplace safety will be monitored by someone other than an elected officer.

In workplaces with no safety officer, the regional safety officers will have the same legal powers as an elected officer. This means that they will be required to inform both employers and employees alike of any failure to comply with the necessary work environment requirements. They may also notify the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority (Arbeidstilsynet) if the employer fails to correct any deficiencies. The regional safety officers are entitled to demand the same information from companies as an elected officer, and are also subject to a duty of confidentiality.

Justification for extending the scheme

The main rationale behind the extension of the current scheme is that it is seen as an important way of preventing social dumping, poor working conditions and illegal work in these industries. Health and safety practices are on the whole regarded as unsatisfactory in cleaning companies, in hotels and restaurants, and especially in small businesses. The perception is that these types of businesses do not tackle the challenges of the work environment in a systematic way. In the cleaning industry this is made worse by communication and language problems, since a high proportion of its workers are first generation immigrants.

Commentary

Employees’ representatives and the Labour Inspection Authority have welcomed the extension of the scheme to these private service sectors. Employers, on the other hand, are highly critical, arguing that the need for increased control in these industries is the sole responsibility of the national authority as vested in the Labour Inspection Authority. Employer organisations are particularly critical of the fact that unions are being given the responsibility for appointing and employing the new regional safety officers. Employers also find it unreasonable that companies that comply with the laws and regulations covering safety representatives should have to fund a scheme largely targeted at businesses that do not. (See position paper (in Norwegian, 56Kb PDF) from the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO) on the government’s hearing document as well as a commentary from NHO Service (in Norwegian, 510Kb PDF)). In the government’s hearing document (in Norwegian, 202Kb PDF) published in June 2009, the Ministry of Labour rejected the strong criticism of employers and made clear its intention to implement a scheme that is not significantly different from the original proposal (NO0907049I).

Kristine Nergaard, Fafo