The government has proposed a temporary arrangement under which employers can apply for payroll support to bring their laid-off employees back to work (for further details please see "COVID-19 FAQs: recalling workers who have been temporarily laid off").
The grounds for the proposal are that the number of temporarily laid-off employees is still high (as of 2 June 2020, nearly 330,000 full or partially unemployed individuals were registered). The support scheme aims to reduce the number of laid-off individuals and counteract the risk that unemployment in Norway will stabilise at a high level.
Initially, the scheme will apply only for July 2020 and August 2020. Payroll support will be provided to employers as a total payment for both months shortly after the scheme expires. Support is granted only for employees who were fully or partially temporarily laid off when the scheme was launched on 28 May 2020. The grounds for the restriction are that the government does not want to give businesses incentives to implement new lay-offs.
To be eligible, employees must have been in work throughout the period for which support is sought, so that they can take holiday. In addition, under the scheme, employees cannot be temporarily laid off or given notice until 1 October 2020. Employees cannot be in a notice period during the period for which their employer receives support.
Businesses that have had a turnover reduction of 30% or more are given a fixed amount of NKr15,000 per month per full-time employee returning to work. For businesses that have had a smaller reduction in turnover, the payroll support will depend on the size of the reduction in turnover. The reduction in turnover in the support month is calculated based on turnover for the same month in 2019. Businesses that have had a reduction in turnover of 10% or less will not receive support.
The government's proposal was scheduled to be considered in Parliament on 16 June 2020.(1)
Endnotes
(1) See Prop 131 L (2019-2010) (in Norwegian).
