Background
Notification concerns the reporting of censurable conditions at the workplace. Through their employment, employees may become aware of matters that are or could be contrary to:
- Legal acts and regulations
- The company’s policies
- The general perception of what is justifiable or ethically acceptable
The Working Environment Act gives permanent and contract workers the right to notify censurable conditions. The notification rules in the Working Environment Act cover cases where an employee notifies censurable conditions in his or her own company. The Act also entitles contracted employees to notify censurable conditions in the contracting company.
In connection with its systematic HSE work, the employer must prepare procedures for internal notifications or implement other measures to facilitate the right to notify censurable conditions. This right shall contribute to strengthening employees’ genuine freedom of expression in the workplace.
Resultat
We have received excerpts from the company’s personnel manual covering “Open communication at work” and “Harassment in the workplace”. We have also received an excerpt from “Safety instructions – Safety philosophy and safety rules”. These are available to employees through the company’s personnel manual.
The materials submitted cannot however be considered to be a complete description of the notification procedure and of the procedure for receiving, processing and following up notifications.
The audit detected the following non-conformity in relation to deficient notification procedure.
The results of this audit series will be summarised in a report and published at psa.no