This summer, at a time where most of us were out of office and enjoying much needed vacation, the new law for state employees was effectuated. The first effect was immediate, and some of you might even have noticed it; internal calls of positions is no longer a possibility. Due to this, some of the positions already called were withdrawn and then called again, but this time publicly. The new law states that the best candidate is to be recruited, not the best internal candidate. Hence, all calls must be public.

The purpose of the new law is, amongst others, to reduce the use of temporary labor, which has been one of the areas the current government has focused on. During the recent years, both the faculty and the university board have had an increased interest in the share of temporary labor within the university. The department has reported on how many of our employees are employed on a temporary basis.

In addition to the new law, the University of Bergen has decided upon even stricter goals in order to reduce the use of temporary labor, ref. University board matter 65/2017. The call of research positions for a duration exceeding 2 years is from now on as a main rule considered called a permanent position. Technical and administrative positions should, as a main rule, not be temporary. Substitute positions are still allowed, but the use of administrative employment without calling the position will be even more restrictive.

Currently, we do not have any well-suited working practices to handle this change, but the faculty is working on it. Even though some positions will be called as permanent instead of temporary, the wage budget distributed to the department will not increase. We therefore need good practices to ensure new positions and areas of work for permanent employees when current projects and tasks are completed. Preferential rights and knowledge must be considered in order to match available resources with project needs. The administration needs sufficient tools to help us organize this. We are all keen on complying with the new requirements from the government and the university board, but we must arrange for a suiting way to organize and follow up.

Best regards,
Julie