Norwegian self-certified sick leave (egenmelding) FAQ

Updated by Daniel Sjögren

This article describes a Norway-specific labour law and how Quinyx supports it.

Short info about the Norwegian self-certified sick leave law

  • Norwegian self-certified sick leave (known as Egenmelding in Norway) means that you notify the employer that you cannot work due to illness or injury without submitting a sick note from a health professional.
  • You must have worked at the employer for at least two months in order to be entitled to use self-certification.
  • You can only use self-certification during the employer liability period, i.e., the first 16 calendar days of the sick leave.
  • If you are away for more than three calendar days, your employer may require a sick note.
  • Self-certification/egenmelding is always just for a whole day, and should not be added as a part-time absence.

How is Norwegian self-certified sick leave supported in Quinyx?

The special Norwegian self-certified sick leave (“egenmelding”) absence type setting enables support for Norwegian customers to ensure that their employees take no more absence days of this type than they’re entitled to by law.

In Quinyx, you’re able to define criteria determining your employees’ ability to take special Norwegian self-certified leave as follows:

Criteria

What does it mean?

Configured in

Example value

Max absence days

This is the maximum number of days during the employer period where the employee was supposed to work from which the employee is absent due to self-certified sick leave. Note that all days following such a day count toward the max absence days until there’s registered worked time (see “What counts toward the Max absence days criteria?” section below).

[Absence type] > Special Norwegian self-certified sick leave (checkbox needs to be ticked) > Max absence in employer period.

3 days

Employer period 

The above-mentioned “Max absence days” value looks to this factor; see the example below.

An employer period starts with an absence day of type special Norwegian self-certified leave and its duration from there on will depend on and reflect the a) limit set in the “Max absence days” field and b) the no-name free text field described in the cell to the right, where a period of 16 days without special Norwegian self-certified leave needs to take place before a new period can start.

For more details, see the “Do Day Count Groups affect the Quinyx logic for special Norwegian self-certified leave?” and “Q: May an employee go on special Norwegian self-certified leave right after having been on sick leave?” below.

[Absence type] > Buffer for days (checkbox needs to be ticked) > No-name free text field (note that if you leave this field blank, the employer period will be 0, so you need to populate this field for an actual check to take place). 

Note that if you use Day Count Groups (see “Do Day Count Groups affect the Quinyx logic for special Norwegian self-certified leave?” below) which is common practice as this is used to connect this type of absence to sick leave, then this field is automatically populated with the corresponding Day Count.

16 days

Occasions

An occasion in this context is an occurrence where the employee goes on special Norwegian self-certified sick leave. This factor is considered in the below-mentioned “Period” value and may include one or various days with absence (regardless of whether or not said absence contains absence shifts). Note that even if three individual absences of type special Norwegian self-certified leave are added to three consecutive calendar days, Quinyx will still consider this as one occasion. 

Tool internal to Quinyx - your Quinyx contact will do this on your behalf upon request.

4

Period

The above-mentioned “Occasions” value looks to this factor; see the example below. Note that Quinyx checks the period configured both preceding the start date of the absence as well as the one following the end date of the absence, i.e. this is a rolling measure. 

Tool internal to Quinyx - your Quinyx contact will do this on your behalf upon request.

12 months

Max days

This is the total max number of days of absence for which the absence type is of the special Norwegian self-certified leave type - regardless of whether or not said days contain absence shifts - within the above-mentioned “Period”. When an absence is added, Quinyx checks this during the Period preceding the start date of the absence, as well as the Period following the end date of the absence.

Tool internal to Quinyx - your Quinyx contact will do this on your behalf upon request.

12 days

Example scenario

Using the example values in the right-most column of the above table, an employee:

  1. Can go on three (but not four) days of special Norwegian self-certified leave without coming back to work in between in a given employer period. For instance, if the employee’s first special Norwegian self-certified leave in Quinyx is January 1, 2023 and an absence shift starts on said day, then that absence can extend until and including January 3, 2023. This three-day absence constitutes that employee’s first occasion of special Norwegian self-certified leave. The employer period, as a result, is January 1 - January 19, since after January 3, 16 days need to pass before a new period can start on January 20. Within the aforementioned employer period, the employee has reached the Max absence days (3) limit using their first occasion. Quinyx will provide a non-overridable warning if, instead, one tries to add an absence for instance from January 1 to January 4 in this case.
  2. Starting January 20, the employee can go on three days of special Norwegian self-certified leave. Let’s posit the employee does so on May 28 until and including May 29, but then feels better and comes back and works on May 30 as planned. This two-day absence marks that employee’s second occasion of special Norwegian self-certified leave. However, the employee goes on special Norwegian self-certified leave again on June 10, and then comes back to work as planned on June 11. This means that the employee period is made up of:
    1. The two days of May 28-29
    2. The 11 days after May 29 leading up to the third absence day on June 10
    3. June 10
    4. The 16 days after June 10 leading up to and including June 26.

This means the employee has reached the Max absence days (3) limit for the May 28 - June 26 employer period using their second and third occasion. (The counting towards the Max absence days limit in cases like this is further described in “What counts vs doesn’t count toward the Max absence days criteria?” section below.)

  1. Starting June 27, the employee can go on three days straight of special Norwegian self-certified leave. Let’s posit the employee does so on August 4 until and including August 6. The employer period, as a result, is August 4 - August 19, and within it, the employee has reached the Max absence days (3) limit using their fourth occasion. 
  2. If the above sequence of hypothetical events hold true, the employee can not go on any additional special Norwegian self-certified leave after the August occasion until January 4, 2024; this is since the period is configured to 12 months and the 4-occasion limit has been reached. Another reason they can’t do so is that the 12-day Max days limit of said Period has been reached;
    1. On January 2, 2024, the employee still can’t take 1 day of special Norwegian self-certified leave - despite having used only 11 days out of the 12-day limit during the past 12 months, the 4-occasion limit for the past 12 months is still reached until and including January 3. However, on January 4, they’re able to go on 3 days of special Norwegian self-certified leave. If those days are used for a January 4-6 absence, they will need to wait until January 23 before they’re able to take another 3-day occasion of special Norwegian self-certified leave.
    Do Day Count Groups affect the Quinyx logic for special Norwegian self-certified leave?

A: Yes, they do. If your special Norwegian self-certified leave absence type is tied to a day count group, then the following will apply:

  • The first day of an absence occasion of any one absence type of the Day Count Group will determine the beginning of the employer period. 
  • The number of days specified in the buffer for days field of the Day Count Group - instead of that specified on the absence type in question - has to pass without an absence occasion of any of the absence types associated with the day count group for a new employer period to start. 
Quinyx' Support team configures Day count groups.

Examples based on the above scenarios:

In 3. above, had the employee in question gone on special Norwegian self-certified leave on May 28-29, but been absent using another absence type part of the same Day Count Group - let’s call it Illness for the sake of example - on June 10, then the next employer period after that would still start on June 27 and only 2 out of the 3 Max absence days would have been used using the second occasion. However, if in addition to the above, the employee goes on special Norwegian self-certified leave, for instance, on June 19, then the employer period would last for 16 more days upon June 19, until and including July 5. That would also mean that the Max absence days (3) for this employer period would have been reached using the second and third occasions of May 28-29 and June 19.

What counts vs doesn’t count toward the Max absence days criteria?

If the Max absence in employer period = 3 and the employer period = 16:

The above illustrates that it is only if the employee comes back to work - interpreted by the system as there being a punch on a day subsequent to a day containing a self-certified sick leave - that the counting of absence day stops the day of the last self-certified absence. If they don’t return to work, the counting toward the “Max absence in employer period” criterion continues, which is why it’s impossible to add a self-certified sick leave in the last screenshot above.

The check carried out by the system with regards to whether or not there’s a punch, i.e. with regards to whether or not the employee has come back to work, is made regardless of reporting mode as well as of Count as scheduled hours or Count as worked hours settings.

FAQ

Q: How long can the self-certification last? 

A: Under the provisions of the National Insurance Act, self-certification can be used for up to three calendar days at a time and up to four times within one year.  This is a minimum scheme, and all businesses may use an expanded right to self-certification for up to the entire employer liability period.

Businesses that have previously had a cooperative agreement on a more inclusive working life (IA) were obliged to have an expanded self-certification scheme, with the right to use self-certification for up to eight calendar days at a time and up to 24 calendar days over a 12-month period. There was no limit to the number of times the right to self-certification can be used.

The IA agreement for the period 2019-2022 encourages businesses to continue the expanded self-certification scheme, and also encourages businesses that have not previously had expanded self-certification to consider this scheme.

Q: Can I lose the right to self-certification?

A: Your employer can decide that you are not allowed to use self-certification if:  

  • you have used self-certification four times over a 12-month period
  • your employer has reasonable grounds to assume that your absence is not due to illness  

Your employer shall give you notice when they deprive you of the right to use self-certification so that you can make a statement. If you have lost your right to use self-certification, the employer shall reconsider its decision after six months.

In Quinyx, there is currently no way to account for these situations. E.g. its not possible to configure it in a way where the system blocks the employee who has lost their right to self-certification from applying.

Quinyx will open up for use again, as soon as the fourth occasion is outside the last 12 months.
Q: May an employee go on special Norwegian self-certified leave right after having been on sick leave?

A: According to Norwegian law, no. In Quinyx, this is supported by configuring the absence type used for special Norwegian self-certified leave accordingly by ticking the “Not preceded by” setting and selecting the relevant absence type there. 

A: Yes, unfortunately Quinyx as a system currently has the following shortcomings when it comes to supporting this law:

  • An occasion is to always be counted as full day; this means that if an employee has an absence of special Norwegian self-certified leave type on day 1, then a punch later that day, and then another absence of special Norwegian self-certified leave type on day 2, that will currently count as 2 occasions in Quinyx. As per Norwegian law, this should count as one occasion.
  • The counting determining when a new employee period can start should, according to Norwegian law, start on the day the employee comes back to actually work (i.e. has a punch registered), not from when the last absence day of said employee.
  • Norwegian labour law states that in order for an employee to qualify for special Norwegian self-certified leave, they need to have been employed by the employer in question for 8 weeks (2 months). In Quinyx, it is still possible for the employee to apply in these cases, although the relevant salary types connected to the absence type can be connected to not generate until more than 57 days of employment.
  • Norwegian labour law states that if a non full time employee has no registered punches in the past 14 days, the employee in question needs to work for 8 weeks (2 months) as a sort of qualifying period prior to being able to take special Norwegian self-certified leave anew. Quinyx currently doesn’t check for this qualifying requirement.
  • On a more general note, it is currently not possible to see which employer period an employee is currently in in the user interface, nor how many days or occassions they currently have left to take out.

We aim to address these shortcomings in due time.

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