Adecco nursing home scandal grows

One of Norway’s biggest private nursing home companies, Adecco Helse, has been rocked by revelations that employees at one of its flagship homes have in some cases worked 84 hours a week without overtime pay, as well as slept in beds in the nursing home’s cellar. The city of Oslo fired them from one of [...]

Why Norway’s welfare state works

NEWS ANALYSIS: As Norway heads into the New Year, it can boast low unemployment, one of the world’s highest standards of living and strong prospects for more economic growth. It’s not just the oil that keeps Norway running so well, agreed a mixed group of four business leaders and one committed social democrat over a [...]

More poor children in Norway

Not everyone in Norway is facing a happy holiday season, despite the country’s relative economic affluence. Oslo-based research foundation Fafo estimates around 100,000 children now live under the locally-relevant poverty level established by the European Union (EU). The number of children living in relative poverty in Norway has risen from around 50,000 just in the [...]

Welfare agency allowed to snoop

Politicians and ordinary citizens alike were unhappy to learn last week that state welfare agency Nav has a legal right to probe welfare recipients’ bank accounts, health care records and telecommunications. Nav officials say it’s the only way they can guard against welfare fraud. “Information can, if necessary, be delivered from financial institutions to Nav,” [...]

More state funds for elder care

Norway’s left-center coalition government is handing over another NOK 1 billion for elder care, after recent criticism that it wasn’t doing enough for the country’s senior citizens. Opposition politicians in Parliament still aren’t satisfied. Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, who was opening a new nursing home and treatment center in Sørum north of Oslo on Friday, [...]

Who’s the daddy of childcare?

COMMENTARY: Norway’s maternity and paternity leave benefits rank as the most generous in the world, sparking debate both at home (over new proposals to further expand them) and abroad. One newcomer to Norway from the UK takes up the debate, and examines the differences between his British homeland and his newly adopted home. (Writer Aled-Dilwyn [...]

‘Welfare system worth higher taxes’

A vast majority of Norwegians support paying even higher taxes than they already do, if it will preserve their country’s social welfare state. Fully 75 percent are willing to pay more tax for good health and elder care. The figure emerged over the weekend from surveys compiled by research firm Synovate and reported by newspaper [...]

Sick leave level drops sharply

Norwegians seem to be feeling better, causing a sharp drop in sick leave. The sick leave rate hasn’t been lower in nine years and that makes Labour Minister Hanne Bjurstrøm smile, but she still has a long way to go, to meet government goals. The sick leave rate fell to 7 percent during the first [...]

Finance fathers mind children most

Fathers in Norway are taking advantage of state welfare measures that help them play a bigger role in their children’s lives. Six out of 10 now take six weeks or more paid leave during their child’s first year, while the number of days men take off work varies with what kind of job they have. [...]

Norway best in world for mothers

A new international survey gives entirely new meaning to Norway’s standing as a “motherland.” It’s now ranked as the best place in the world to be a mother, thanks to generous state support and child care benefits. Norway in effect pays women to have children, thanks to lump sum grants given to mothers for every [...]

Oslo apologizes to abused children

City officials in Oslo closed a painful chapter in the capital’s history this week, as it wrapped up a four-year effort to make amends to children who were abused at city-run institutions and foster homes. The victims, now grown, have received formal apologies and payments of as much as NOK 700,000 (USD 116,000). Other cities [...]

Experts present their sick leave cure

A group of health care and labour experts handed over their recommendations for lowering sick leave costs to government ministers on Wednesday. Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg has been leading the charge to get more Norwegians back to work, but it also has emerged that the ministers don’t always follow sick leave rules themselves. Stoltenberg’s panel [...]

Paternity leave meets its goals

Fathers who take advantage of Norway’s paternity leave benefits, and take time off work to help care for their newborns, end up devoting more time to family life throughout their children’s upbringing, according to a new study reported in newspaper Dagens Næringsliv on Tuesday. Norway was the first country in the world to introduce separate [...]

'Welfare system not sustainable'

The national association representing Norway’s local and regional authorities is calling for a serious review of the country’s famous but fragile social welfare system. “The system we have is not sustainable,” claims its leader, Sigrun Vågeng, but the government rejected her call for a state welfare commission to tackle the challenges. Vågeng told newspaper Aftenposten [...]

Finance minister steps on the brakes

Sigbjørn Johnsen, Norway’s new finance minister, claims the level of Norway’s social welfare services may have hit their peak. Even though his government has proposed an expansive budget for next year, Johnsen suggests significant belt-tightening lies ahead. He intends to put the brakes on public spending of Norway’s oil revenues. “The next four years are [...]

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