§ 5 Occupational health service

Reference is made to Section 3-3 of the Working Environment Act as regards occupational health services. The new Working Environment Act does not have the same requirements related to safety personnel as earlier versions. However, there remains a need for safety personnel in the offshore petroleum activities, and these are defined as part of the occupational health service. The occupational health service shall be approved by the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority and shall have a free and independent position in working environment matters, cf. Section 3-3, first and third subsections of the Working Environment Act.

As far as the employers use of occupational health service is concerned, reference is, inter alia, also made to provisions on occupational health service in Regulations 6 December 2011 relating to administrative schemes (in Norwegian only) and Regulations 6 December 2011 relating to organisation, management and participation (in Norwegian only). These regulations also apply directly to the petroleum activities, with the specifications and limitations given in the regulations.

In order to fulfil the requirement for cooperation as mentioned in the second subsection, the operator or the party responsible for the operation of a facility, shall enter into agreements with the principal undertaking and the employers of the contractor employees regarding distribution of the working environment tasks carried out by the occupational health service on the facility.