Strike could halt deliveries to Rema 1000. More than 700 employees await mediation outcome

Mediation began on Friday, 4 September, with Norway's state mediator, Riksmekleren. On one side are the Fellesforbundet and Yrkestrafikkforbundet (YTF) unions; on the other is the employers' organisation NHO Service og Handel.

The deadline for reaching an agreement is midnight. If the talks end without a result, employees covered by the first wave of the strike will leave work at the start of Saturday's shift.

Fellesforbundet has notified a strike involving 470 people employed by 28 companies covered by the Grossistavtalen agreement. Of these, 411 work for Rema Distribusjon.

YTF has prepared a strike involving a further 237 employees: 193 from Rema Distribusjon Norge and 44 from Kolly. In total, this means that 604 employees in Rema 1000's distribution operations alone could stop working.

These are employees responsible for receiving goods, picking orders, packing and dispatching from warehouses. Stopping these processes could quickly affect deliveries to stores in different parts of the country.

Kolly delivers food and beverages to more than 2,000 customers, including hotels, restaurants, kiosks and petrol stations. The first wave of the strike also includes employees of other companies connected with warehousing and distribution, including Felleskjøpet Agri and Servicegrossisten.

Rema 1000 says it is preparing for possible disruption and continually assessing how to maintain deliveries within the applicable regulations. The start of a strike does not therefore mean that every store will have empty shelves on Saturday morning. The extent of shortages will depend mainly on the duration of the protest, individual stores' stock levels and the ability to organise deliveries.

Pay rises are part of the negotiations. The unions are demanding an improvement in employees' purchasing power in line with this year's settlement in industry. However, another important issue is the advance payment of sickness benefits (forskuttering av sykepenger), as well as care and parental benefits.

Advance payment means that the employer continues to pay the employee on the usual payday and later recovers the amount due from NAV. It does not increase the level of the benefit. However, it protects the employee from an interruption in income when the agency needs time to process the case.

According to YTF, most warehouse companies already use this arrangement. The union wants the guarantee to be included in the collective agreement and to cover people who currently have to wait for direct payment from NAV.

The employer pays sickness benefit for the first 16 calendar days of uninterrupted sick leave. This period is called the arbeidsgiverperioden, or employer period.

From day 17, the benefit is funded by NAV. An employee can generally receive 100% of their benefit basis, but only up to the 6G limit. From 1 May 2026, 1G is NOK 136,549, so the current limit is NOK 819,294 per year.

If the company advances sickness benefits, the employee continues to receive payment from the employer and the company claims reimbursement from NAV. Where there is no such arrangement, NAV transfers the money directly after the employer period.

The employer has no general statutory obligation to advance the benefit after day 16. However, such a right may result from a collective agreement, employment contract, company regulations or a practice used within the company.

NAV processes most straightforward cases automatically within a few days. Government data show that in 2025, the average processing time in the new system was 11 days when payment was made directly to the employee and 20 days when the employer was reimbursed.

These are averages, not guaranteed timeframes. Cases requiring manual assessment may take longer, especially where an employee has several employers, variable income, or combines employment with self-employment or freelance work.

NAV will not begin fully processing the case until it has received the required information. The employee must submit an application for sykepenger, while the employer must provide income information, known as an inntektsmelding. The absence of this document is a common cause of delays.

It is best to determine this before a longer illness occurs. In your employment contract, collective agreement or company regulations, look for information about forskuttering av sykepenger.

You can also ask the payroll department or your manager directly:

Does the employer advance sickness benefits after the employer period?

In other words: does the employer advance sickness benefits after the first 16 days have ended?

During sick leave, you should also keep track of your own administrative responsibilities:

1. submit the sick note and application through Ditt sykefravær on the NAV website,
2. check whether your employer has submitted the inntektsmelding,
3. answer questions and provide documents if NAV asks for them,
4. monitor the status of the case and the expected payment date.

If your sick note was issued in Poland, your payment has been suspended, or you have document-related problems, you can use MultiNOR's assistance with sickness benefits (translation quote in 3 minutes, PL/NO).

For now, there is no information that deliveries have stopped and no reason to stock up heavily. The strike will begin only if the parties fail to reach an agreement. The talks may also be extended beyond the scheduled time, which often happens during Norwegian wage mediations.

If the negotiations end in failure, the first group of employees will begin their strike at the start of their shift on Saturday, 5 September.