Picture: From left: HR manager Bernt Kristian Berntsen and employee representative Paul Kristiansen received national recognition.

National recognition for being an early pioneer in reducing sick leave

Ten years ago Norske Skog Saugbrugs became the world’s first company to introduce an agreement between the labour union and the company to reduce absence from sickness. The purpose of the IA-agreement was to encourage companies to adhere to an inclusive working life.

The company’s HR manager Bernt Kristian Berntsen and employee representative Paul Kristiansen received flowers and a diploma signed by the leader of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO), Roar Flåthen, and director general of the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO), John G. Bernander for Norske Skog Saugbrugs pineer work. A large number of Norwegian companies have signed similar agreements.

Both Kristiansen and Berntsen say the IA-agreement has been of great significance for Saugbrugs as a company: “The collaboration has contributed to the ability to take care of expertise, and to the creation of culture.”  They believe the agreement broke down a barrier. It created unity and an awareness of how everybody depends on each other in a work place. The number of self-certification days was extended, but the absence due to illness decreased. Illness was still considered a private matter, but absence was not.

During the diploma ceremony on Wednesday 1 February it was informed that at Saugbrugs the absence due to illness certified by a doctor is 3.5 per cent, which is half of the absence registered at the other companies in the county.