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§ 32 Notification of possible work-related illness

Any physician who, in a professional capacity, acquires knowledge that an employee may be suffering from a work-related illness, shall notify the Norwegian Ocean Industry Authority in writing, cf. Section 5-3 of the Working Environment Act.
Employees who are of the opinion that they suffer from a work-related illness, shall notify their employer or the party representing their employer. If the employee consents, the employer shall further report such cases to health personnel in his/her own enterprise. The health personnel shall carry out a professional evaluation and, if relevant, notify the Norwegian Ocean Industry Authority. The health personnel shall always report recurrence of the illness if the employee has been without the relevant symptoms for at least twelve months.
Notifications shall be provided of possible work-related illness as mentioned in the first and second subsections, regardless of whether the authorities have previously been notified of the matter, cf. Section 29, first subsection.
Section last changed: 01 January 2011

This section is an elaboration of Section 5-3 of the Working Environment Act.
Reports regarding possible work-related illness shall be provided on the Norwegian Ocean Industry Authority’s and the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority’s form 154 b (language form “bokmål”) or form 154 c (language form “nynorsk”), no later than one month after the illness became evident. Occupational illnesses shall be reported on the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration form NAV 13-06.05 for offshore petroleum activities and NAV 13-07.05 for activities on land facilities.
Notifiable work-related illness can be diagnosed on the basis of
  1. knowledge of the link between a specific type of illness and specific working environment factors,
  2. documented working environment factors to which the sick employee has been exposed, and the degree of exposure to these factors,
  3. occurrence of the illness in groups with different exposure duration and different degrees of exposure.
The Norwegian Ocean Industry Authority does not find it expedient to state a lower limit for the causal weight (causal per cent) required to determine that an illness is work-related. In the individual case of illness, it is often difficult to determine such a percentage. Therefore, the reporting requirement entails that the Norwegian Ocean Industry Authority shall be notified of all illnesses where the working environment may have contributed to the illness.
Reports to the employer are governed in Section 2-3, second subsection, litera e of the Working Environment Act.
Employees can also report directly to health personnel, cf. Section 3-3 of the Working Environment Act. In such cases, the employees should also submit to an examination by these personnel.