Move to get disabled back into the workplace (Aftenposten)

15 000 persons receiving disability benefits will soon be called in for interviews in a drive to get as many as possible back into the workplace. Those who do not meet stand to lose their benefits. This nationwide initiative is based on the results of a trial project conducted in Østfold county which indicate that as many as 20 per cent of the people that are evaluated return to work. This project was a joint effort of the national human resources agency Aetat and the National Insurance Administration. Spokesmen for these two agencies take pains to explain that no one will be forced back to work. Applying the figures from the Østfold project to the rest of the country indicates that over 3000 persons now on disability can return to work. This would save the country at least NOK 700 million.

Public communications to start competing (Aftenposten)

The coalition parties together with the Progress Party propose to convert the national road, rail, aviation and postal administrations into state-owned corporations and to invite private service-providers to compete. The parliamentary opposition opposes this move on the grounds that it would lead to a stronger concentration of resources in the major population centres at the expense of activities that do not return good profits, such as local airstrips, which would face higher risks of being closed. "This is a shocking way to treat the employees of these government companies. This should have been subject to much closer study and not simply put forward as the product of a quick compromise," says Oddbjørg Starrfelt, senior Labour MP on the parliamentary Transport and Communications Committee.

UNEVEN PROGRESS IN GENDER EQUALITY (Klassekampen)

There have been no further gains in the number of women in leading positions in business or in Norwegian society in general in the past year. Ingunn Yssen, director of the Centre for Gender Equality, expressed her frustration yesterday when she presented the Gender Equality Barometer, though she felt the trends in government and public administration have been relatively good. Norway has one of the highest percentages of women in parliament in the world. The only negative figures in this area in the past year are in the percentage of women state secretaries and political advisers, which dropped from 40 to 34 per cent in the new Government.

Local authorities taking pension business elsewhere (Dagens Næringsliv)

The national municipal pension fund (KLP) has launched a massive charm offensive against the local government sector in an effort to halt what stands to be the biggest exodus of clients this pension fund has ever seen. Every fifth municipality has reported that they may leave, due to a hefty raise in premiums. The KLP says the situation is dramatic.

Worth Nothing

• The national security police (POT) are still using information sources at workplaces such as the University of Bergen to keep an eye on groups they consider a potential threat to national security. This has been confirmed by Steinar Karlsen, regional director of POT in western Norway. (Bergens Tidende)
• The Norwegian Nurses’ Association will demand pay raises ranging from NOK 50 000 to 100 000 next year. Union leader Bente Slaaten’s goal is to see all nurses earning NOK 300 000 a year.
• Those parts of Norwegian industry which are exposed to international competition have some difficult times ahead. Statistics Norway foresees higher unemployment, slower growth in employee pay and a weakening competitive edge. (Aftenposten)
• Einar Bull, Norway’s departing ambassador to the EU, will take over as president of the EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA) on 1 January. After a compromise with Iceland, Norway continues to hold the top ESA post. (Aftenposten)
• Lars Saabye Christiansen won the Brage Prize in literature yesterday for his novel, Halvbroren (The Half-brother).

Today's comment from Aftenposten

It’s not the way things actually work, of course, but it is easy to imagine the Bondevik Government and Finance Minister Per-Kristian Foss as having commissioned the report published yesterday by the International Monetary Fund on trends in the Norwegian economy. Indeed, Mr. Foss expressed his complete satisfaction with the report’s main conclusions: we must be restrictive about spending too much of our "oil money" because of the risk of inflation, and some tax relief should be possible in the not too distant future.