The Inkluderende Arbeidsliv (IA) agreement is a tripartite deal between the Norwegian government, employer organisations, and trade unions. This article explains its history, goals, obligations for employers, and measurable outcomes.
What Is the IA-Avtale?
The Inkluderende Arbeidsliv (IA) agreement — Inclusive Working Life Agreement — is a voluntary tripartite agreement between:
The Norwegian government (represented by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs)
Employer organisations: NHO (Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise), Spekter, Virke, KS (Local Government Norway), and others
Trade union confederations: LO (Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions), Unio, YS, and Akademikerne
The agreement establishes shared goals for reducing sickness absence, increasing employment of persons with disabilities and reduced work capacity, and extending working life. Enterprises that sign the IA agreement gain access to enhanced support from NAV and their employees gain access to extended self-certification rights.
As of 2024, approximately 14,000 enterprises have signed the IA agreement, covering approximately 65% of all employees in Norway.
History and Renewals
Period
Notes
2001–2005
First IA agreement — introduced in response to rising sickness absence rates in the late 1990s
2006–2009
Second agreement — extended scope, strengthened employer obligations
2010–2013
Third agreement — increased focus on disability employment and senior workers
2014–2018
Fourth agreement — sharpened targets, expanded NAV Arbeidslivssenter role
2019–2022
Fifth agreement — restructured around three target areas with sector-specific sub-goals
2022–2025
Sixth agreement (current) — maintained three goals, reinforced focus on employer-level action and dialogue
The IA agreement has been politically durable across changes of government. Both Labour-led and Conservative-led governments have renewed and maintained it, reflecting broad cross-party support for the tripartite model.
The Three Goals
The current IA agreement (2022–2025) has three overarching goals:
Goal 1: Reduce Sickness Absence
The national sickness absence rate (sykefraværsprosent) should not exceed 6% of contracted working hours. This target was met in some years in the early 2010s but has fluctuated around 6–7% since. COVID-19 substantially disrupted sickness absence trends in 2020–2022.
Goal 2: Reduce Use of Disability Benefits and Increase Employment of Persons with Reduced Work Capacity
More persons with reduced work capacity should be in employment. The agreement does not set a specific employment rate target for this goal — unlike the sickness absence target, it is directional rather than quantitative, which has been criticised as weakening accountability.
Goal 3: Extend Working Life
Employees should remain in work to a higher age, reducing early exit through disability pension or AFP (early retirement). The informal target is to increase average exit age to 70 years (from approximately 64–65 years for many workers).
Obligations for IA Enterprises
Enterprises that sign the IA agreement commit to:
Developing and implementing an inclusion plan (inkluderingsplan) that identifies concrete measures for each of the three goals
Conducting dialogue meetings (dialogmøter) with absent employees at prescribed intervals
Actively using BEM (Betriebliches Eingliederungsmanagement — workplace integration management, Norwegian equivalent: oppfølgingsplan)
Making systematic efforts to include persons with reduced work capacity in hiring
In return, IA enterprises receive:
Dedicated support from NAV Arbeidslivssenter (see below)
Access to extended self-certification (egenmeldingsrett) of up to 8 days per episode and up to 24 days per year (versus 3 days and 4 episodes for non-IA enterprises)
Faster access to NAV's Raskere tilbake (Faster Return) health services
Dialogue Meeting System
A central element of the IA agreement is the structured dialogue meeting (dialogmøte) process for employees on sickness absence:
Meeting
Timing
Who participates
Dialogmøte 1
By week 7 of absence
Employee + employer (NAV not required unless requested)
Dialogmøte 2
By week 26 of absence
Employee + employer + NAV (mandatory NAV attendance)
Dialogmøte 3
By week 52 of absence
Employee + employer + NAV + treating physician (if appropriate)
The meetings are intended to be constructive — focused on what work the employee can do, what adaptations are possible, and what steps will support return to work. The meetings are not disciplinary proceedings.
Employers who fail to hold Dialogmøte 1 by week 7 face a sanction: loss of the right to claim reimbursement of sickness benefit costs from NAV (in cases where NAV reimburses the employer).
NAV Arbeidslivssenter
Each of Norway's 15 counties (fylker) has a NAV Arbeidslivssenter — a specialist NAV unit that provides free advice, support, and training to IA enterprises. Services include:
Guidance on implementing the IA agreement at enterprise level
Training for HR staff and line managers on sickness absence management, adaptation, and inclusion
Statistical benchmarking of enterprise sickness absence against sector norms
Support in developing inclusion plans and workplace adaptation measures
Mediation support in cases of complex long-term absence
NAV Arbeidslivssenter advisors (rådgivere) have no authority over individual employment decisions — their role is purely advisory and supportive.
Evidence on Effectiveness
The evidence base on IA's impact is substantial but mixed:
Sickness absence: Multiple evaluations (SINTEF, Fafo) find that IA enterprises have lower sickness absence growth than non-IA enterprises, and that the dialogue meeting system — particularly Dialogmøte 1 at week 7 — is associated with faster return-to-work. However, it is difficult to disentangle selection effects (more motivated enterprises join IA) from genuine causal impact.
Disability benefit use: The evidence that the IA agreement has reduced disability pension uptake is weak. Norway's uføretrygd caseload has increased throughout the IA period (from ~260,000 in 2001 to ~375,000 in 2024), suggesting that the agreement has not arrested the underlying trend. OECD (2013) noted that the IA agreement was primarily a sickness absence management tool and had limited effect on the disability employment gap specifically.
Working life extension: Some increase in average retirement age has been observed, though this is partly attributable to pension reform (2011 pension reform) rather than the IA agreement specifically.
Fafo evaluation (2018): Found that the quality of IA implementation varies substantially across enterprises — in many cases, the IA agreement is a paper commitment with little operational impact. The most effective IA enterprises are those with strong HR capacity and active trade union involvement.
Key Concepts
Sykefravær (sickness absence): Norway has unusually high sickness absence rates by international comparison (approximately 5.5–7% of working time lost, compared to 3–4% in comparable countries). This is partly attributable to the generous sick pay scheme (100% wage replacement for up to 52 weeks, funded by NAV after 17 employer-paid days), which reduces the financial disincentive to take sick leave.
Utenforskap (outside the labour market): The concept of utenforskap — persons who are neither employed nor in education, often receiving benefits long-term — is central to Norwegian welfare policy debate. The IA agreement is one of several policy tools aimed at reducing utenforskap.
Sources
Regjeringen.no: IA-avtale texts and government announcements — regjeringen.no
SINTEF: Evaluations of IA agreement implementation and sickness absence impact
Fafo (2018):Evaluering av IA-avtalen 2014–2018. Oslo: Fafo
OECD (2013):Mental Health and Work: Norway. Paris: OECD Publishing
Kjønstad, A. & Syse, A. (2017):Velferdsrett I. Oslo: Gyldendal Juridisk
NAV Arbeidslivssenter: nav.no/no/lokalt/arbeidslivssenter
Last reviewed: March 2026.
Tags
norwayIA-avtalesickness absenceinclusive working lifeNAVtripartitenordicemployer