Equal treatment plan

In Norway, there is a law on equality and a ban on discrimination, with effect from 1.1.2020, which requires all Norwegian employers to work actively, purposefully, and systematically to promote equality and prevent discrimination. This work must be documented and carried out in collaboration with employees’ organizations. The annual report shall have an account of the condition and the measures that have been implemented.

Several of NR’s sources of funding, such as the Research Council of Norway and the EU framework program, have additional requirements to ensure equality and prevent discrimination. This plan satisfies Norwegian legal requirements and the requirements from NR’s sources of funding. Gender equality and equal treatment are also important in NR’s continuous work to improve our research, culture, and organization. This plan is therefore dynamic and involves implementing special measures if differences are discovered or otherwise deemed necessary.

Responsibilities and resources

NR’s management by CEO is responsible for following up the plan. The action points will be followed up by NR’s HR advisor and CEO in person. NR will provide the sufficient resources to implement the measures. NR is a small organization, and it is more natural to include equal treatment in the culture than to write comprehensive plans and set aside own people who follow up the plans full time.

Status

	Administration	Research scientists	Management	Board
Men	3	51	4	5
Women	5	25	1	2
Total	8	76	5	7
Share of women	62%	33%	20%	28%

9 employees in primary position are from 6 other European countries and 12 employees are from 8 non-European countries. NR’s organization is so small that coincidences may have a significant influence on the numbers. NR’s gender balance also depends on the gender balance among the qualified persons for a position. This is a problem for international recruitment within technology.

NR ensures equal treatment of both genders and all minorities in all recruitment, career enhancement, salaries and promotions and try to avoid any kind of bias. There are no reported cases of conflicts or unfavourable treatment. Surveys among the staff (from 2021) confirms a reasonable work-life balance.

As part of a compulsory national gender report, NR has compared the salaries for men and women. The employees were divided into 10 categories. In the 5 categories with at least 3 of each sex, the average salary for females were between 98,6% and 104,0% of the average salary for men. Female employees had on average 35 weeks maternity leave while men on average had 15 weeks leave in connection with new child in the family. In 2021, NR  had 38 male and 12 female applicants for positions, and we hired 7 men and 3 women. Women had an average sick leave at 3,5 % and men 3,0 % while both sexes had 1,2 % paid leave due to sick children.

NR has the necessary expertise to work with gender equality and minority challenges.

Objective

1. Ensure equal treatment of both sexes and all minorities in employment, career development, promotion and try to avoid all types of inequality.
2. Try to achieve equal treatment of both sexes in all employment categories and boards.

Annual work plan

1. Report statistics on gender in the annual report, to NR’s board, the Research Council of Norway, Statistics Norway, and other public bodies that request this. If the statistics are not satisfactory, the management will act to analyse the problem and ensure satisfactory development.
2. Assess gender balance in all recruitment, career development and decision making.
3. Monitor workload to ensure that it is satisfactory.
4. Assess whether there is a gender issue in NR’s research and in the entire research within an area.
5. Establish a working group if this is necessary to ensure gender balance in recruitment or career development.
6. Have a clear and communicated NR statement that all persons shall be treated with respect and dignity.

Culture

1. Focus on scientific quality in research.
2. Equally treat all persons regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, age, religion, sexual orientation, and nationality.
3. Try to achieve equal representation of both sexes in all employment categories, in management and decision-making. This includes employment and career development.
4. Employees must have a satisfactory workload.
5. Good working environment where all employees are treated with respect and dignity.
6. NR is constantly working to further develop this culture.

Adopted by NR’s management 04.02.2022