Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2016, published 106th ILC session (2017)

Norway

Workmen's Compensation (Agriculture) Convention, 1921 (No. 12) (Ratification: 1963)
Equality of Treatment (Accident Compensation) Convention, 1925 (No. 19) (Ratification: 1929)
Equality of Treatment (Social Security) Convention, 1962 (No. 118) (Ratification: 1963)

Need to update information on the national law and practice. The Committee notes that in all reports on the abovementioned Conventions the information concerning the application of their substantive provisions has been limited to the repeated indication that “reference is made to previous reports”. In its observation on the Government report on Convention No. 19, the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) pointed out that the report “does not comment equal treatment between Norwegian and foreign citizens on issues like compensation. The LO assumes that Norwegian regulation on this matter has been elaborated in earlier reports”. Having looked through the reports on Conventions Nos 12, 19 and 118 back over the last 20 years, the Committee has not found the Norwegian regulation on equality of treatment to which the Government wished it to refer. Taking into account that regulations adopted over 20 years ago may be largely outdated, the Committee asks the Government to give an overview of the development of the national legislation in the area of the equality of treatment in social security, with particular emphasis on the employment injury benefit, and to indicate specific provisions of the current legislation and administrative regulations in force and corresponding national practices, which give effect to each of the substantive Articles, as requested in the report forms on these instruments. In doing so, the Government may wish to consider the question of whether, having been bound by the obligations of ensuring equality of treatment between nationals and foreigners in accident compensation under Convention No. 19 since 1929, Norway may be able to accept the obligations in respect of employment injury branch (g) of Convention No. 118 as well.

Need to provide comprehensive statistical information. The Committee notes from the report on Convention No. 118 that “as regards statistical data, reference is made to the report on Convention No. 19”. The Committee recalls that Norway has accepted the obligations of Convention No. 118 with respect to the following branches of social security: (f) survivors’ benefit and (i) family benefit, while Convention No. 19 concerns the employment injury branch and the report on this Convention provides only statistics on the number of occupational injuries. The Committee refers the Government to Part V of the report form on Convention No. 118 and asks it to provide statistical information concerning the approximate number of foreign workers in the national territory, their nationality, their occupational distribution, etc., as well as the number and amounts of survivors’ and family benefits and employment injury pensions paid abroad to Norwegian nationals and to the nationals of any other Member which has accepted respective obligations of Conventions Nos 118 and 19.

As what concerns statistics on the number of reported occupational injuries supplied in the reports on Convention No. 19, the Committee notes that, according to the report of 2011, the number of such injuries in 2010 was 813, while according to the report of 2016, the same number amounted to 16,052 and in 2014 increased to 24,000. The Committee asks the Government to explain these differences in numbers and to provide updated statistics on the number of reported occupational injuries and the number of benefits granted in compensation, particularly in case of fatal injuries, to national as well as to foreign workers. The Committee notes in this connection, from the report on the Workmen’s Compensation (Occupational Diseases) Convention (Revised), 1934 (No. 42), that Norway is currently giving priority to upgrade the statistical system concerning occupational injuries and diseases under the leadership of Statistics Norway and the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Organization in coordination with other authorities, including the Labour Inspection and the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, and other information technology projects. The Committee hopes that this important project will enable the Government to systematically include in its future reports on ILO social security Conventions full and comprehensive statistical information requested in their report forms.

Equal treatment of refugees and stateless persons. In view of the recent influx of refugees to Norway from the zones of conflict in Northern Africa and the Middle East under the quotas imposed by the European Union, please explain how equality of treatment without any condition of reciprocity is ensured, in accordance with Article 10(1) of Convention No. 118, to refugees from the countries concerned which have also ratified this Convention, including Iraq, Libya, Syrian Arab Republic and Tunisia.

[The Government is asked to reply in full to the present comments in 2018.]