NORWAY Law and Practice Contributed by: Thomas Talén, Øyvind Clausen Bade, Marte Dahl and Marianne Viset, Ro Sommernes Advokatfirma AS
8.3 Other Forms of Discrimination and/ or Harassment Including Bullying and/or Mobbing The employer must ensure a fully satisfactory working environment, both physical and psychological. Chapter 4 of the WEA contains a prohibition against harassment. Harassment means actions, omissions or statements that have the purpose or effect of being offensive, frightening, hostile, degrading or humiliat - ing. The WEA also contains a prohibition against discrimi - nation. The grounds of discrimination covered by the law are: • political views; • membership in an employee organisation; • age; • part-time employment; and • temporary employment. Breach of the prohibition against discrimination may result in claims for damages and compensation, regardless of whether the employer is at fault. Norway also has a separate Equality and Anti-Dis - crimination Act. This Act applies to all areas of society and prohibits discrimination on the grounds of: • gender; • pregnancy; • parental leave in connection with birth or adoption; • care responsibilities; • ethnicity, religion, belief; • disability; • sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expres - sion; • age; or • other significant circumstances relating to a per - son. Discrimination includes both direct and indirect differ - ential treatment. As protection against discrimination, the Act contains several prohibitions, such as prohibi - tion against retaliation and prohibition against harass - ment. In addition, the Act contains requirements for active equality work in the workplace.
privacy safeguards are implemented in internal AI sys - tems. Employers must establish a clear, lawful basis for processing. They must also fulfil their transpar - ency obligations towards employees and ensure that only necessary data is processed. Furthermore, it is essential to maintain robust data security, particularly when engaging external providers. Meaningful human oversight must also be preserved to ensure that sig - nificant decisions are not made solely on the basis of automated processing. By appropriately addressing these data protection considerations, employers can effectively leverage AI as a valuable tool in the conduct of HR internal investigations. Whistle-blowing is regulated by Chapter 2A of the WEA, which provides employees with the right to report whistle-blowing by giving a notice of con - cern. The WEA also sets out rules for the procedure for notices of concern, the employer’s duty to act, the prohibition against retaliation against the person reporting, the duty to have whistle-blowing proce - dures in place and other related matters. See 1.2 Bases for further information. 8.2 Sexual Harassment and/or Violence Chapter 4 of the WEA contains a statutory prohibi - tion against harassment, including sexual harassment. Sexual harassment means any form of unwanted sex - ual attention that has the purpose or effect of being offensive, frightening, hostile, degrading, humiliating or troublesome. The attention may be verbal, non- verbal or physical. Breach of the prohibition against sexual harassment may give rise to a right to compensation. 8. Special Cases 8.1 Whistle-Blowing See also 8.3 Other Forms of Discrimination and/or Harassment regarding other forms of discrimination.
299 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook