Labour standards requirements (seriøsitetskrav)

Labour standards requirements (seriøsitetskrav, literally «seriousness requirements») are requirements in public contracts meant to keep rogue operators out and to counter work-related crime (arbeidslivskriminalitet) and social dumping. The word is not used in the law. The Public Procurement Act (anskaffelsesloven) calls most of them contract terms on social considerations, and from 1 July 2026 they are collected in §§ 5e to 5l of the Act, with a duty to carry out checks in § 5i and a requirement for sanctions in § 5p. On this page, § 2 (3) and §§ 5e to 5p are sections of the Act, and § 5-1, § 9-5 and § 24-2 are sections of the Public Procurement Regulations (anskaffelsesforskriften). The word is also used for standard terms that go further than the Act, such as the agreed labour standards provisions for building and construction (omforente seriøsitetsbestemmelser).

Pay and working conditions (§ 5e) apply to service contracts and works contracts, not to supply contracts. Employees and hired workers of the supplier and its subcontractors who take part directly in performing the contract must at least have the terms of a generally applicable collective agreement (allmenngjort tariffavtale) where one exists, that is, a collective agreement whose terms have been extended to everyone doing that kind of work in Norway. Otherwise, a nationwide collective agreement for the industry applies, as regards working hours, pay including supplements, and cover of travel, board and lodging.

In building and construction and in cleaning, the contract must also require mandatory occupational pension (obligatorisk tjenestepensjon) and HSE cards (HMS-kort), both under § 5f, pay via bank (§ 5g) and, as a rule, no more than two tiers (ledd) in the supply chain below the supplier (§ 5k). Pay via bank means that wages are paid into a bank account, not in cash. Works contracts must in addition include requirements on a duty to provide information and on language skills (§ 5f (2)).

The apprentice requirement (§ 5h) applies to service contracts and works contracts that must be advertised and last more than three months, where a trade or journeyman's certificate (fag- eller svennebrev) is relevant for the main element of the contract and there is a particular need for apprenticeships. The supplier must then be affiliated with an apprenticeship scheme (lærlingordning), and at least 10% of the work must be done by apprentices. At least one of the people taking part in the work must be an apprentice. The requirement does not apply where it would be disproportionate. A foreign supplier can meet it with an apprentice from an apprenticeship scheme in its home country or, if the home country has no such scheme, with a trainee (praksiselev) from a training scheme there (§ 5h (3)). If the supplier is affiliated with an apprenticeship scheme, the requirement counts as met if it can document genuine attempts to sign a contract with an apprentice that did not succeed, or that the apprentice could not be used in the work for reasons relating to the apprentice and genuine attempts to find a new one failed (§ 5h (5)).

The selected supplier, if it is Norwegian, must make available information or a certificate on tax and VAT (attest for skatt og merverdiavgift) that is no more than six months old, counted from the date on which the contracting authority notifies who has won (§ 5l). In works contracts, the supplier must require the same from Norwegian subcontractors when the contract with them is worth more than NOK 500,000.

§§ 5e, 5f, 5g and 5k apply from the threshold at which supply and service contracts must be advertised, which under the Regulations is NOK 1.3 million, also in building and construction; see the question on amounts below. §§ 5e to 5l do not apply to utilities contracts and concession contracts (§ 2 (3)); the Utilities Regulations (forsyningsforskriften) have their own provisions, see the page on them. Before 1 July 2026, the requirements were in the Regulations on pay and working conditions in public contracts, in the Apprentice Regulations (lærlingforskriften) and in the Public Procurement Regulations. In Part II of the Regulations, which applies from NOK 1.3 million up to the EEA thresholds (except health and social services), and to special services (særlige tjenester) from NOK 1.3 million with no upper limit, the thresholds for pay and working conditions, apprentices and tiers were then NOK 1.3 million for central government authorities and NOK 2.05 million for other contracting authorities, and the limit on tiers applied only to building and construction.

The requirements in §§ 5e to 5h and § 5k are contract terms: the contracting authority must write them into the contract, and they set out what you commit to when you sign. They therefore affect what it costs to deliver. You do not need to have a collective agreement yourself, but on working hours, pay including supplements and cover of travel, board and lodging, your terms must at least match the generally applicable collective agreement where one exists and otherwise the nationwide agreement for the industry, and if there are several nationwide agreements, you can choose which one to base your terms on (DFØ, the Norwegian Agency for Public and Financial Management). Advice: read the contract terms before you set your price, and include the collective agreement pay level, pension, HSE cards, any apprentice hours and the time it takes to document compliance.

The requirements apply to the whole chain. In the contract, the contracting authority must make sure they can be invoked for employees and hired workers of the subcontractors (DFØ), and every agreement you make for work under the contract must contain equivalent requirements on pay via bank (§ 5g). If you have not required a tax certificate from a Norwegian subcontractor in a works contract, the contracting authority can require you to replace that subcontractor. The contracting authority can also require you to replace a subcontractor that has not paid its taxes and duties. You bear the costs of terminating the agreement with the subcontractor (§ 5l (4)). Advice: choose subcontractors who can document the same as you, and write the terms into your contracts with them.

The contracting authority must carry out the necessary checks of pay and working conditions, pension, HSE cards, pay via bank and apprentices, and document its risk assessment and the checks (§ 5i). DFØ describes the checks as risk-based: where the risk is high, the contracting authority must check documents, and DFØ gives cleaning as an example of higher risk than consultancy services. You and your subcontractors must, on request, provide documentation of the terms in §§ 5e, 5f and 5g. DFØ mentions employment contracts, timesheets, work schedules, payslips and records of bank transactions. The apprentice requirement is not part of this duty, but the contract may require documentation for it as well. Within its remit, the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority (Arbeidstilsynet) supervises compliance with the duties under §§ 5e, 5f and 5i, and the Norwegian Ocean Industry Authority (Havindustritilsynet) has the same responsibility within its area (§ 5j).

The contract must contain appropriate sanctions for breaches by you or your subcontractors, both of terms the Act requires and of terms the contracting authority has chosen to include (§ 5p). The Act does not say which. DFØ mentions correction, withholding payment, reducing the price, daily penalties and termination, and gives as an example withholding about twice what the supplier saved through the breach until the correction is documented. The contracting authority does not have to sanction every breach. Breaches can also matter later: the documentation from the checks may be used if the contracting authority considers rejecting you in a later procurement (DFØ).

A county authority (fylkeskommune) advertises the renovation of an upper secondary school for NOK 18 million, with ten months of construction. The value is above NOK 1.3 million, so all the building and construction requirements in §§ 5e, 5f, 5g and 5k apply, and the apprentice requirement is added if the conditions in § 5h are met. The county authority also uses the agreed labour standards provisions, which among other things require at least half of the hours in the building and construction trades to be worked by skilled workers (faglærte).

You want to bid as main contractor and plan to use a Norwegian plumbing firm, which subcontracts the insulation to a sole trader (enkeltpersonforetak). That is two tiers below you, and it is allowed. If the sole trader wants to subcontract part of the job, that becomes a third tier below you, which is not allowed unless the contract permits more. Before you submit your tender, you check that the plumbing firm can document pay, pension and bank payments, and you price in the time this takes. When you sign the contract with the plumbing firm, which is worth NOK 2 million, you require information or a certificate on tax and VAT from them. If you win and are a Norwegian company, you present your own certificate, no more than six months old counted from the notification that you won.