The Legal Requirements for the Psychosocial Work Environment: What Does It Mean for Your Business?

What Does the Law Say, and What Is New

The Working Environment Act requires employers to ensure a fully safe and healthy working environment. This requirement covers both physical and psychosocial working conditions. Under Section 4-1(1) of the Act, the working environment must be fully satisfactory based on an overall assessment of all factors that may affect employees’ physical and mental health, safety, and welfare.
 

Until January 1, however, Section 4-3 of the Working Environment Act, which specifically addresses the psychosocial work environment, referred to only a limited number of factors, including protection against harassment and other improper conduct.
 

The first paragraph of the provision now makes it explicit that work must be organized, planned, and carried out in such a way that psychosocial work environment factors are fully satisfactory with regard to employees’ health, safety, and welfare.
 

The second paragraph identifies four psychosocial work environment factors:
 

• Unclear or conflicting demands and expectations in the workplace
• Emotional demands and strains associated with working with people
• Workload and time pressure that create an imbalance between the work to be performed and the time available
• Support and assistance in carrying out work

The Act emphasizes that this list is not exhaustive and that these factors are in addition to those already set out in the third through sixth paragraphs of the provision.
 

Under these paragraphs, work must also be arranged so that employees’ integrity and dignity are safeguarded, employees have opportunities for contact and communication with colleagues, employees are not subjected to harassment or other improper conduct, and, as far as possible, are protected from violence, threats, and adverse strains arising from contact with others.
 

The Ministry has made it clear that the legislative amendment is intended to clarify existing law and does not introduce any substantive tightening of employers’ obligations. Rather, its purpose is to provide better guidance and greater visibility regarding factors that were already covered by the general requirement for a safe and healthy working environment, making it easier for employers to identify and address relevant issues as part of their preventive work.
 

What Does This Mean in Practice

Although the legislative amendment does not create any new substantive obligations, it helps clarify a point that the courts have already emphasized: an employer’s responsibility for ensuring a fully satisfactory working environment extends to the way work is actually organized and carried out on a day-to-day basis, not merely to the prevention of harassment or violence.
 

Two examples from case law illustrate this responsibility:
 

In a case before the Hålogaland Court of Appeal (LH-2019-087696), an employee reported being subjected to sexual harassment by several customers. The employer was found liable for damages because the report had been handled inadequately. The Court of Appeal held that the company’s conduct was reprehensible, among other reasons because the report was not adequately investigated or followed up, necessary measures that could have prevented further harassment and strain were not implemented, and because the company had no procedures in place for handling such reports.
 

A more recent case before the Borgarting Court of Appeal (LB-2024-058268) concerned the dismissal of an employee who had subjected female colleagues to sexual harassment over an extended period. The Court of Appeal stated that employers have a duty to ensure a fully satisfactory working environment, and that this consideration must carry significant weight when assessing whether dismissal is a proportionate response. This was particularly important because the working environment was especially vulnerable in the offshore sector, where employees work and live in close proximity to one another. The court found the misconduct to be so serious that neither a warning nor reassignment would have been an appropriate response, and concluded that the dismissal was justified and valid.
 

These decisions demonstrate that the requirement to maintain a fully satisfactory psychosocial working environment has real consequences in both directions. An employer may be held liable for failing to act, while at the same time having the right, and in some circumstances the duty, to take firm action against individuals whose conduct harms the working environment.
 

The psychosocial work environment factors set out in Section 4-3 of the Working Environment Act also provide a useful checklist for identifying risks within an organization. Unclear expectations often arise during reorganizations or where roles and responsibilities are poorly defined. Emotional demands are particularly relevant in professions involving close interaction with patients, service users, students, or customers. Workload and time pressure are classic risk factors for sickness absence, and the preparatory works to the legislation refer to findings indicating that a significant proportion of long-term sickness absence may be explained by high exposure to role conflict, emotional demands, and lack of managerial support. A lack of support and assistance in the workplace is often what makes other workplace pressures unmanageable for individual employees.
 

What Your Organisation Should Do

1. Systematically assess the psychosocial work environment, using the psychosocial work environment factors set out in the legislation as a basis for follow-up activities, employee surveys, and risk assessments.

2. Establish clear procedures for reporting and addressing misconduct, while also communicating key workplace values and employees’ responsibility to contribute to a safe and healthy working environment for themselves and their colleagues.

3. Clarify roles and expectations within the organisation, particularly during reorganisations, leadership changes, or periods of growth.

4. Ensure that managers are held accountable for their role in promoting a healthy psychosocial work environment.

5. Use sickness absence follow-up proactively as a preventive tool, rather than merely as a compliance exercise. Early and close dialogue with employees can both reduce the duration of absences and help identify underlying workplace issues.

6. Document systematic health, safety, and environment (HSE) work, including assessments of psychosocial factors. Good documentation is important both for preventive efforts and for demonstrating compliance should the organisation later need to show that it has fulfilled its legal obligations.

Summary

The amendment to Section 4-3 of the Working Environment Act does not introduce any substantive change to existing law. However, it sends a clear message: the psychosocial work environment must be addressed with the same level of structure, attention, and seriousness as physical workplace safety.

Case law shows that the courts already place significant weight on how employers manage psychosocial workplace issues, both where employers have failed to fulfil their responsibilities and where they have had to take action to protect the working environment of other employees.
 

World Mental Health Day provides an excellent opportunity to raise awareness of these issues internally and to strengthen focus on the organisation’s work to promote a healthy psychosocial work environment.