Your colleagues are tired and stressed – do you have a role here?
From 1 January 2026, it is clearer that the employer must consider whether stress, time pressure and unclear expectations create an unsafe working environment. As a union representative, you have a key role in this work – see how you can use the new rules in practice.
Part 1: Stricter requirements in the law – what's new?
From 1 January 2026, there are amendments to Section 4-3 (lovdata.no) of the Working Environment Act . The changes clarify what the responsibility for a proper psychosocial working environment entails.
A new first paragraph has been included in section 4-3, which states that "the work shall be organised, planned and carried out in such a way that the psychosocial working environment factors in the enterprise are fully justifiable from the point of view of the employees' health, safety and welfare.»
The Act specifies four factors that pose a risk of an unsatisfactory psychosocial working environment and which employers must actively prevent. As a union representative, it is important to know what these risk factors may be in your business. Knowing these factors makes it easier to spot and address challenges in your workplace.
Risk factor #1: Unclear or conflicting requirements
When the expectations of the employee are unclear or in conflict, it creates stress and uncertainty. Typical examples:
- Unclear roles: Uncertainty about what is expected, what the responsibilities are, or how tasks should be prioritized.
- Role conflict: Conflicting orders from two managers make it impossible to meet both expectations.
- Conflict of values: Tasks that conflict with professional or personal values, such as compromising on standards to save time.
Risk factor #2: Emotional demands and strains
Common in professions where you work closely with other people, such as customers, patients or students. The strain can arise when employees have to:
- Dealing with other people's strong emotions, such as meeting relatives in grief or users in a crisis situation.
- Hide your own feelings, for example by having to appear service-minded and calm even if you are met with anger or frustration.
- Showing constant empathy, which over time can be exhausting.
Risk factor #3: Workload and time pressure
A persistent imbalance between tasks and the time available is a high risk. This can be expressed as:
- A fast pace with no room for breaks or professional reflection.
- Tasks that pile up over time without staffing being increased or tasks being prioritized away.
- Lack of recovery due to systematic overtime or an expectation of being available outside of working hours.
Risk factor #4: Support and help at work
Is about social and professional support from managers and colleagues. Lack of support can be:
Part 2: From well-being to organisation
A good psychosocial working environment is about more than social measures and well-being. It is about how the work is organized.
The consultation prior to the legislative amendment showed that many companies lack a common understanding of what makes for a good working environment. Many companies have worked more on repairing problems than preventing them.
The new clarifications in the Act clarify what can contribute to a good working environment and what poses a risk of a poor working environment. Unclear roles, unrealistic time pressure and lack of support are organisational problems that can create dissatisfaction.
As a union representative, you can contribute to a common understanding of what these terms mean in your business. That alone does not solve the challenges, but it provides a basis for discussing causes and finding solutions together with management.
Part 3: Collaboration is Key
Union representatives, safety delegates and management all have important roles in the work with the working environment. In order to succeed with the working environment work, the responsibilities must be clear, even if the roles sometimes overlap:
- Union representatives: Works primarily with agreements and co-determination.
- Safety delegates and AMU: Is responsible for legislation and the protection of employees.
Although the roles are different, the goal is the same: A safe and healthy working environment.
Establish fixed, informal meeting points between union representatives and safety delegates if you do not already have one. Talk to each other, share information and coordinate who is addressing what. When you coordinate your efforts, you are in a stronger position in the dialogue with management.
Part 4: Use the Toolbox You Already Have
You do not need new arenas to work with the psychosocial working environment. Use the tools and meeting places you already have to put it on the agenda.
The Working Environment Committee (AMU): The statutory arena
AMU is the most important arena for systematic HSE work. Here you can:
- Require an updated risk assessment: Request an assessment that looks at the new organizational factors in the law. Don't settle for a general well-being survey.
- Request a concrete action plan: A risk assessment is worthless without follow-up. Ask: What is to be done? Who is responsible. When should it be done?
Co-determination: Influence decisions before they are made
Section 3-1 (lovdata.no) of the Working Environment Act gives the employer the responsibility to work systematically to prevent people from becoming ill from work (physical or mental), and they must do this work in cooperation with the employee representatives in the workplace.
Also use the right to discuss actively to focus on the consequences for the working environment – before decisions are made. For example:
- Reorganisations: How to ensure clear roles and a justifiable workload for those affected?
- New IT systems or work processes: How can we ensure adequate training and support so that employees avoid unnecessary stress?
- Budget processes: Is the framework realistic, or will this lead to unjustifiable pressure on the employees?
- Staffing: Is the proportion of temporary workers or temporary workers high? What does this do to the working environment for both the permanent and the temporary?
Read more about co-determination
The day-to-day role: Be the members' mouthpiece
Your proximity to members is one of your most important tools. Use it to:
- Pick up signals. Listen in the informal chat. This is often where you first pick up on patterns, for example that several people in the same department report the same problem.
- Systematize and lift challenges. If you see that a problem is systematic, you can take it to the management or AMU. Describe the challenge as a pattern, for example : "In department X, there are unclear expectations." Then you protect individuals and address the cause.
Part 5: How to get started – three concrete steps
- Gain a common understanding: Take the initiative for a discussion with the management and the safety representative. Agree on how you will understand and work with the psychosocial working environment according to the new rules.
- Get it on the agenda: Ask for an updated risk assessment of the psychosocial working environment to be an issue at the next AMU meeting.
- Use the discussion meetings: Ask questions about the consequences for the psychosocial working environment in all relevant processes you discuss with management.