Your rights

Sick leave

Read more about your rights while on sick leave, what the rules are, and what kind of support you can get.

Medical certificate

In order to qualify for sickness benefit from Nav, you need to be unable to work due to sickness or injury. This needs to be documented with a medical certificate. The person issuing your medical certificate, must always assess if you are able to work or perform work-related activities.

For some diagnoses, dentists, manual therapists and chiropractors can also issue medical certificates. A chiropractor or manual therapist can only issue medical certificates for the first 12 weeks of your absence from work.

Different kinds of medical certificates

Most primary care physicians issue digital medical certificates for sick leave. You can find it by logging in to Ditt sykefravær on nav.no. From here, you can forward the medical certificate to your employer.

If you can’t find the medical certificate on nav.no, the person who issued it and placed you on sick leave has perhaps not submitted it digitally yet. This is often the case for medical certificates issued at hospitals. Wait a few days to use the paper-based form, and the medical certificate will be sent to you digitally.

If you can’t or don’t want to use a digital medical certificate, you have to ask your doctor to issue it on paper

If you are able to perform some work, you will be placed on partial sick leave. The intention is to maintain your connection with your workplace and use your remaining capacity for work, but only if it medically safe for you to do so.

The sick leave can be graded down to 20 percent. If you have multiple jobs, you need to be on sick leave from at least 20 percent of your total workload. Periods of partial sick leave count as part of your sick leave period, which is maximum 52 weeks. This means the sick leave period is always the same; it does not matter if you are on full or partial sick leave.

There are two ways to be on partial sick leave:

You can work fewer hours than normal, with fewer responsibilities.
You can take longer to handle your normal responsibilities.

If you are able to work more than what is indicated by your partial sick leave, you can. When you submit your application for sickness benefit, you must specify all the hours you worked. Your sickness benefit is calculated based on how much you work.

In order to qualify for sick leave for individual treatment days, you can’t work before or after treatment, to ensure that your treatment is effective. You must be healthy enough to be able to work on days you are not receiving treatment. This arrangement grants one treatment day per week. If you need more than one treatment day per week, you should ask for a partial sick leave instead.

You don’t qualify for sick leave for individual treatment days if

you can work before or after your treatment
your absence is caused by spending most of the day travelling to and from treatment
you are participating in education or training

You will be granted full sick leave for your treatment day.

Your employer will pay sick pay for your first 12 treatment days. After that, you will receive sickness benefit from Nav.

Reserved sick leave is a notice to your employer that you can avoid sick leave if your work is adapted for you.

Reserved sick leave is used during the employer liability period, i.e. the first 16 days of your absence, when your employer pays your sick leave.

Avoid sick leave with adaptations

In order to qualify for reserved sick leave, you need to meet the sick leave requirements, and it has to be medically safe for you to work some. The person issuing your medical certificate will assess this.

If workplace adaptations are not possible, and you become completely absent from work, the person who issued your medical certificate must issue a medical certificate for ordinary sick leave if your employer requests it. Your employer should inform the person issuing the medical certificate why it is not possible to make adaptations. Your employer can include this in the follow-up plan and share this plan with the person issuing the medical certificate.

The new ordinary sick leave will then apply from the date on which the notice of reserved sick leave was issued.

The days of reserved sick leave will not count as part of the employer liability period if adaptations made it possible for you to work fully.

You are responsible for seeking medical help and document your inability to work with a medical certificate. The main rule is that Nav will not accept a medical certificate for a time period before you were assessed by a doctor. There are some exceptions from this rule, but these are limited. One example is that it was not possible to get a doctor’s appointment sooner. If so, the doctor will assess your situation and specify in the medical certificate that your sickness absence started earlier.

Your responsibilities while on sick leave

You must accept offers of evaluation, treatment and adaptations while on sick leave. The goal is to make sure you are not absent from work longer than is necessary.

When you have an employer, your employer is responsible for your follow-up. Together, you must develop a follow-up plan, and you have an obligation to participate in dialogue meetings.

If you don’t have an employer, Nav is responsible for your follow-up.

Check out these short videos:

Financial support when you are sick

Nav decides whether the medical certificate qualifies you for sickness benefit. Dfferent rules apply depending on the type of work you do and your situation.

See the rules that apply to your situation and what you have to do to qualify for sickness benefit.

Sickness benefit Benefits

If you do not qualify for sickness benefit, you can apply for work assessment allowance. You can apply for work assessment allowance even if you have not received sickness benefit.

Work assessment allowance (AAP)Benefits

Sick leave while studying

If you have to suspend your studies due to sickness, you may qualify for work assessment allowance as a student.

Chronic illness or pregnancy

You or your employer can apply for Nav to pay sickness benefit during the employer liability period if you have

a long-term or chronic condition that means you have an especially high risk of sickness absence, or
a condition caused by pregnancy

Dekking av sykepenger i arbeidsgiverperiodenMeasures

If you are pregnant and healthy, but your work or workplace conditions may harm the baby, you may qualify for pregnancy benefit.

SvangerskapspengerBenefits

See also various insurance schemes Nav offers to self-employed persons, freelancers and other groups:

Forsikring – sykepengerInsurance

Frivillig yrkesskadetrygdInsurance

Return to work sooner

You can return to work again before your sick leave is over. You do not need any documentation from your doctor, and you also do not have to notify Nav in advance. Agree your return to work with your employer.

When you apply for sickness benefit, simply specify the date you returned to work. Read more about your options for returning to work early.

When your employer does not accept your medical certificate for sick leave

Sometimes an employer may refuse to pay sick pay during the first 16 days of your absence. This is the so-called employer liability period.

If your employer does not accept your medical certificate, you can apply to Nav for sickness benefit for these 16 days.

Want more guidance from Nav?

If you want a dialogue meeting with us, you can log in to nav.no and request a meeting at any time during your sick leave.

When you have logged in, you can also see your medical certificate, your application for sickness benefit, your follow-up plan and other information you need while on sick leave.

Logg inn