Today in Norway: A roundup of the latest news on Monday
Liberation and Veterans' Day marked throughout the country, students sue the University of Oslo for millions of kroner, and other news from Norway on Monday.
Norway marks Liberation Day
On May 8th, Norway celebrates Liberation Day, which commemorates the country's release from occupation during World War II.
This annual event, known as Frigjøringsdagen in Norwegian, also doubles as Norway's Veterans Day.
King Harald, Crown Prince Haakon, and Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre will mark the occasion at Akershus Fortress in Oslo.
The anniversary of Norway becoming free again in 1945 after five years of Nazi occupation will be celebrated nationwide.
Among other things, Crown Prince Haakon will lay a wreath at the National Monument for the victims of the war, and the Norwegian government will send ministers to a number of places around the country to hold speeches and mark the day.
Students sue University of Oslo for millions of kroner
Two law students are suing the University of Oslo after parts of their education at the University of Oxford in Great Britain were not recognised and approved in Norway.
The two students have submitted a class action suit against the university, in which they estimate that the number of students who have been put in the same situation totals roughly 2,000, the newspaper Aftenposten reports.
In the suit, compensation of up to 555.2 million kroner is being requested for all affected students.
Ove Kenneth Nodland, one of the two students behind the suit, was unable to get several subjects recognised from his studies at the University of Oxford.
He went through 758 decisions from the University of Oslo (UiO) on the recognition of education and found errors in 742 of the decisions.
He believes that UiO has broken the rules of the so-called Lisbon Convention from 1999, to which Norway has acceded.
Espresso House employees without wages for several months
Several Espresso House employees in Norway have not been paid for several months.
The newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN) has spoken to eight employees who said there were significant payment problems.
Espresso House is Norway's largest coffee chain, with 60 coffee shops nationwide and around 1,000 employees.
Some employees report fewer hours were registered than they have actually worked, and some have received the wrong hourly wages, while others have not received wages for several months.
This is due to a combination of routines, communication, and system errors, the company's Norway manager, May-Britt Østby, said.
"A system failure like this should not happen, but it has, and we have apologised profusely to those affected. As an employer, we have done a far too poor job here. We are deeply distressed by the consequences of the mistake, and we have worked hard to rectify the failure," she wrote in an email to the newspaper.
The effects of the taxi reform
The reform of the Norwegian taxi market in 2020 has led to the number of taxi licenses increasing from 8,000 to 18,100 - but industry turnover is still lower than before the reform, according to a new report from the Institute of Transport Economics and Fafo Research Foundation.
The reform of the taxi market was the most significant regulatory change to the industry in Norway since the 1940s. It was carried out in the middle of the pandemic by Erna Solberg's Conservative government.
The change increased the number of licenses from around 8,000 in autumn 2020 to 18,100 in April 2023.
The turnover figures show a sharp drop from 2019 to 2020, probably due to the coronavirus pandemic, which placed major restrictions on demand for taxi services.
From 2020 to 2021, as restrictions were lifted and activity picked up again, a certain increase in turnover in the industry was seen, but only to a level that was still far below 2019, according to the report.
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Norway marks Liberation Day
On May 8th, Norway celebrates Liberation Day, which commemorates the country's release from occupation during World War II.
This annual event, known as Frigjøringsdagen in Norwegian, also doubles as Norway's Veterans Day.
King Harald, Crown Prince Haakon, and Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre will mark the occasion at Akershus Fortress in Oslo.
The anniversary of Norway becoming free again in 1945 after five years of Nazi occupation will be celebrated nationwide.
Among other things, Crown Prince Haakon will lay a wreath at the National Monument for the victims of the war, and the Norwegian government will send ministers to a number of places around the country to hold speeches and mark the day.
Students sue University of Oslo for millions of kroner
Two law students are suing the University of Oslo after parts of their education at the University of Oxford in Great Britain were not recognised and approved in Norway.
The two students have submitted a class action suit against the university, in which they estimate that the number of students who have been put in the same situation totals roughly 2,000, the newspaper Aftenposten reports.
In the suit, compensation of up to 555.2 million kroner is being requested for all affected students.
Ove Kenneth Nodland, one of the two students behind the suit, was unable to get several subjects recognised from his studies at the University of Oxford.
He went through 758 decisions from the University of Oslo (UiO) on the recognition of education and found errors in 742 of the decisions.
He believes that UiO has broken the rules of the so-called Lisbon Convention from 1999, to which Norway has acceded.
Espresso House employees without wages for several months
Several Espresso House employees in Norway have not been paid for several months.
The newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN) has spoken to eight employees who said there were significant payment problems.
Espresso House is Norway's largest coffee chain, with 60 coffee shops nationwide and around 1,000 employees.
Some employees report fewer hours were registered than they have actually worked, and some have received the wrong hourly wages, while others have not received wages for several months.
This is due to a combination of routines, communication, and system errors, the company's Norway manager, May-Britt Østby, said.
"A system failure like this should not happen, but it has, and we have apologised profusely to those affected. As an employer, we have done a far too poor job here. We are deeply distressed by the consequences of the mistake, and we have worked hard to rectify the failure," she wrote in an email to the newspaper.
The effects of the taxi reform
The reform of the Norwegian taxi market in 2020 has led to the number of taxi licenses increasing from 8,000 to 18,100 - but industry turnover is still lower than before the reform, according to a new report from the Institute of Transport Economics and Fafo Research Foundation.
The reform of the taxi market was the most significant regulatory change to the industry in Norway since the 1940s. It was carried out in the middle of the pandemic by Erna Solberg's Conservative government.
The change increased the number of licenses from around 8,000 in autumn 2020 to 18,100 in April 2023.
The turnover figures show a sharp drop from 2019 to 2020, probably due to the coronavirus pandemic, which placed major restrictions on demand for taxi services.
From 2020 to 2021, as restrictions were lifted and activity picked up again, a certain increase in turnover in the industry was seen, but only to a level that was still far below 2019, according to the report.
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