Right to extended hours: part-time to full-time

Part-time employees have the right to extended hours before the employer hires new staff or engages temporary workers from staffing agencies. Since 1 January 2023, full-time is the main rule in the Working Environment Act. If you receive a written rejection, you have four weeks to appeal.

Part of the main guide "Labour migration to Norway".

What does the right to extended hours mean?

The right to extended hours means that as a part-time worker, you must be offered the new hours first. The Working Environment Act § 14-3 first subsection gives part-time employees the right to extended hours "before the employer makes a new hire or engages temporary workers in the business".

The right also applies to part of a position. If you work 50 percent and the business advertises a position at 80 percent, you can claim 30 percentage points of it and reach 80 percent yourself. You do not have to take the entire advertised position.

Since 1 January 2023, the right to extended hours also applies to extra shifts and similar work (§ 14-3 second subsection). Then you must be offered the shift before the employer calls a staffing agency or hires someone new for that specific work. This part also applies to you if you are a temporary part-time employee, for example a call-in substitute.

Full-time is the main rule under § 14-1 b

Since 1 January 2023, it is in black and white in the law: "An employee shall as a main rule be employed on a full-time basis." The rule came with act 9 December 2022 no. 88.

Before the employer decides to hire someone on a part-time basis, the need for part-time work must be documented in writing. The documentation must be available to the employee representatives, and the part-time issue must be discussed with them.

This gives you a concrete tool: ask the employee representative to see the documentation for your department. If it was never created, the Labour Inspection Authority (Arbeidstilsynet) can issue the employer an order to correct it, because § 14-1 b second subsection is on the list in § 18-6. The employer also has a duty to inform all employees about vacant positions in the business (§ 14-1).

Three rights that are often confused

Three different sections give you three different claims, and each has its own appeal body.

Here lies a pitfall few know. The Working Environment Act § 17-2 gives the Dispute Resolution Board authority only in cases under § 14-3 first subsection and § 14-4 a. If you think you were wrongly denied an extra shift under the second subsection, you must go to court instead.

How to write your claim

The law does not require written form, but write it anyway. Without a written claim and a written response, you have no date to count the appeal deadline from. Send it by e-mail to your nearest manager, and ask for a written response. Include:

• Name, job title, current employment percentage and date of employment.
• The actual claim: "I claim the right to extended hours under the Working Environment Act § 14-3" — or § 14-4 a if you have worked regular overtime for 12 months.
• Which position or employment percentage you claim, with the advertisement date and possibly a reference number.
• Why you are qualified: education, certification, Norwegian level and years of the same work duties.
• That you ask for discussion before the employer makes a decision. You have the right to this under § 14-3 fourth subsection.
• Request for written response with justification, and the date you sent the claim.

Check the employment percentage in your employment contract before sending, so that the figures in your claim match the agreement.

What is the deadline to appeal to the Dispute Resolution Board?

The deadline is four weeks from when the employer's written rejection reached you. This is stated in the Working Environment Act § 17-2 a. If you send the case later, it will be rejected without substantive examination.

The deadline is not extended because you ask for further justification, lodge an internal complaint or wait for a meeting with management. This is the most common reason good cases are lost.

Neither chapter 17 of the Working Environment Act nor the regulations on the Dispute Resolution Board require a fee to bring a case, and there is no requirement for a lawyer. The Dispute Resolution Board decides the case in writing, based on the documents. Submit via eDialog at tvistelosningsnemnda.no, and attach the employment contract, your written claim, the rejection and the job advertisement text.

Processing time is three to six months. The decision is binding: if no lawsuit is brought within eight weeks, the decision has the same effect as a final court judgment (§ 17-2). If the case goes to court, the judge can rule that you must be hired for the position, or award damages (§ 14-4).

When does the right to extended hours not apply?

The right to extended hours falls away if you are not qualified, or if the extension would cause substantial disadvantages for the business (§ 14-3 third subsection). This is the objection employers use most often.

What constitutes a substantial disadvantage is determined on a case-by-case basis, and the Labour Inspection Authority provides no fixed list. In practice before the Dispute Resolution Board, it is typical that the roster no longer works out, or that your colleagues get many more inconvenient shifts. That the employer prefers to have many small positions to cover the weekends is not in itself enough.

Three other limits you should know before you send your claim:

• The right to extended hours under the first subsection requires that you are permanently employed. The extra shift right under the second subsection also applies to temporary employees.
• The new position must contain roughly the same work duties as you have today.
• Employees who have been laid off due to redundancy (§ 14-2) come ahead of you in the queue (§ 14-3 fifth subsection), with some exceptions for the right to extended hours in corporate groups and for temporary employees.

The employer can also, after discussions with employee representatives, limit the extra shift right to one or more units with at least 30 employees together. Then your right applies within that unit, not in the entire corporate group.

12 months of overtime gives the right to a larger position

If you have regularly worked more than agreed over the last 12 months, you have the right to a position equal to your actual working hours (§ 14-4 a). The employer only escapes this by documenting that the need for the overtime no longer exists.

The detail that decides the case: the twelve-month period is counted backwards from the day you made the claim. If you make the claim on 26 July 2026, the hours count back to 26 July 2025. If you wait three months, you lose the three oldest months of overtime.

The Dispute Resolution Board asks for a completed overtime form in Excel with all hours beyond agreed working time in the period. Start keeping shift lists and time sheets now. Note that overtime up to full employment is not the same as overtime, and normally does not give overtime pay.

Why this matters most for immigrant women

Among employed immigrant women, 64 percent worked full-time in the fourth quarter 2025, compared to 83 percent of immigrant men. That is a difference of 19 percentage points, according to SSB (Statistics Norway) in an analysis published 30 April 2026.

Involuntary part-time costs more than the low monthly salary. A low employment percentage gives lower holiday pay, lower sick pay, lower unemployment benefits and lower pension accrual. It also weakens your income documentation when you apply for permanent residence or a mortgage.

The better you know the basic rules of Norwegian working life, the more secure you stand in conversation with your manager. SamfunnPrep has a complete overview of employee rights in Norway.

Many of these rules are curriculum for the civic knowledge test — practise for free on SamfunnPrep.