Norway: Recruitment and selection

Original author: Kjerstin Falkum Løvik, Arntzen de Besche

Updating author: Nina Thjømøe, Littler Norway

See the legal services provided by the updating author of International > Norway, including any discounts/offers for subscribers.

Summary

• Direct and indirect discrimination in all aspects of recruitment and selection is prohibited on various grounds. (See Discrimination)
• Employers must promptly notify vacant positions to the public Labour and Welfare Administration, and are obliged to inform its existing employees about vacant posts in the organisation. (See Advertising vacancies)
• Employers have complete discretion over whether or not to recruit, and whom to recruit, although selection must not involve direct or indirect discrimination on any of the statutory prohibited grounds. (See Selection)
• There are various rules regarding work carried out by young people and children. (See Young people and children)
• Private-sector employers that regularly employ more than 50 employees, and all public-sector employers, are subject to statutory rules regarding disability issues. (See People with disabilities)
• To work as employees in Norway, people who are not citizens of EU/EEA member states or Switzerland must generally obtain a residence permit prior to entering the country and commencing work. (See Foreign nationals)
• Employees who have been dismissed because of "circumstances relating to the undertaking" have a statutory preferential right to be re-employed by their former employer or within a group of companies, in certain circumstances. (See Preferential right for re-employment)