Gender Equality Plan

The purpose of this guideline is to provide an overview of the systematic work that the hospital performs to promote equality, inclusion and diversity, and to prevent discrimination. The guidelines describe the activity duty and duty to issue a statement under Section 26 of the Equality Act, which means that all employers shall make active, targeted and systematic efforts to promote equality and prevent discrimination. In addition to the guideline, the hospital has an action plan for equality, inclusion and diversity.

Lovisenberg Diaconal Hospital (LDS) works for equality and against discrimination on the basis of gender, pregnancy, leave in connection with childbirth or adoption, care responsibilities, ethnicity, religion, belief, functional impairment, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or combinations of these grounds. This is enshrined in various guidelines and procedures in the Employee Portal and the eHandbook. This guideline contains a compilation of rules and guidelines related to equality and the prohibition of discrimination at LDS. 

These guidelines are also drawn up as documentation in relation to research applications. The Research Council of Norway and the European Commission require that Gender Equality Plans (GEPs) are in place at an organisational level for applicants and partners when a contract is signed (not at the time of application). The reason for this is that the Research Council wants to be a driving force for equality and gender balance in research.

The hospital’s work

Equality is about gender diversity, but also about ensuring all employees equal rights and opportunities regardless of gender, functional ability, sexual orientation, age, ethnicity or religion. Employers want to show respect for each individual and work actively to promote a good working environment characterised by equal status and diversity. The hospital accepts no form of discrimination against its own employees or others connected with the undertaking. The hospital is a female-dominated workplace. It would be desirable to have a better gender balance between men and women.

A committee for gender equality and inclusion has been established at the hospital, chaired by the HR Director. At the behest of the hospital’s management and works council (SU), the committee is tasked with working towards equality and against discrimination on the basis of gender, pregnancy, leave in connection with childbirth or adoption, care responsibilities, ethnicity, religion, belief, functional impairment, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or combinations of these grounds. In addition, the committee is tasked with prioritising the hospital’s efforts in these areas, developing an action plan and reporting its work to the hospital management and SU twice a year.

In connection with research applications to the Research Council of Norway and the EU, the individual applicant is responsible for attaching a link to this guideline in the Employee Portal (insert link).

Action plan for equality, inclusion and diversity 2023-2026

The hospital has an Action Plan for equality, inclusion and diversity 2024-2027 with targets and measures that will apply for the period 2024-2027. 

Based on the hospital’s core values of charity and quality, the hospital shall provide good and equitable healthcare to the people it serves as and when they need it, regardless of age, place of residence, gender, ethnic background, religion or social status. The hospital’s catchment area is characterised by cultural and ethnic diversity. We would like similar diversity to be reflected in employee groups. Each employee has a responsibility to cooperate across professions and cultures, to think innovatively and find solutions.

There will be active work on three focus areas, where each focus area has defined measures to be followed up during the period:

• Communication with patients
• Communication between employees
• Recruitment and employer profiling

Activity duty and duty to issue a statement 

All Norwegian undertakings, regardless of size, must make active, targeted and systematic efforts to promote equality and prevent discrimination. The general equality obligation states that one should identify equality challenges and address them before they escalate into conflicts or complaints.

To ensure that employees and job applicants have equal opportunities, active and targeted measures are needed to promote equality. All employers in Norway are therefore subject to a general activity duty as described in Section 26 first paragraph of the Equality and Anti-Discrimination Act. All undertakings that have more than 50 employees must also report on the actual state of gender equality and the work that has been performed to fulfil the activity duty.

The following indicators are to be reported:

• Total gender balance in LDS
• Temporary employees
• Part-time employees
• Parental leave
• Pay review and involuntary part-time employment (every other year)

Section two in the report describes the work we do for equality and against discrimination. The report is presented to the Director’s management team, the works council (SU) and the hospital board.

Compilation of our work for equality

• Provisions in the Employee Portal prohibit discrimination on the grounds of, for example, gender, pregnancy, religion, age and functional impairment. A specific guide and templates have been drawn up to use in recruitment. It is prohibited to treat employees differently based on national origin, descent, skin colour or language. Obtaining information about ethnicity or asking an applicant to provide information about their own sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, or to obtain such information in any other way during the recruitment process, is also prohibited.
• A diversity statement has been prepared that is used in profiling the hospital and is included in all job advertisements. The diversity statement reads as follows:

‘At Lovisenberg, we value diversity and inclusion. As a hospital serving Oslo’s central districts, we encounter the diversity of the population every day. Employees with different skills, backgrounds, life experiences and perspectives provide an excellent basis for caring for each patient and contribute to cooperation and understanding.’  In job advertisements, the statement ends with ‘We hope you will become one of us.’

• New photographs have been taken of employees that greater reflect the diversity of the employee group and the hospital’s patient base. The images are now widely used in the hospital’s external profiling and are available for use by all hospital employees. Some work still needs to be done on the hospital’s website.
• Provisions in the Employee Portal for employees who do not belong to the Church of Norway. These employees are entitled to take time off work (without pay) for up to two days each calendar year for religious holidays relating to their religion.
• Provisions in the collective agreements that specify the minimum wage rates for annual salaries for all position codes at the hospital. When recruiting new employees, current minimum wage rates are used as a basis for everyone. When recruiting for more demanding positions, management positions, in connection with promotions and other deviations from the minimum wage rates, an assessment is made of, among other things, qualifications, formal and informal competence, the recruitment situation and suitability.
• Provisions in the Employee Portal to enable employees in different life phases to combine work and family/private life. LDS has no hospital-wide arrangements for flexible working hours, but at the individual level, employees are entitled to flexible working hours if this can be implemented without significant inconvenience to the undertaking. Parents of young children can apply for three days of paid welfare leave when their children start kindergarten/a childminder, two days annually for planning days in kindergarten and the first day of school.
• The collective agreement gives employees who are breastfeeding the right to up to two hours off per working day to breastfeed. Employees on parental leave are assessed in salary negotiations in the same way as other employees and are included in the improvement of working conditions.
• Senior policy measures have been introduced aimed at employees over 58 years of age, with the purpose of retaining and making use of the labour, experience and expertise needed by the hospital. From the age of 58, the annual performance appraisal interviews are expanded to include a senior perspective, for an individual assessment of development opportunities that meet the individual’s and the hospital's needs.
• LDS is committed to an inclusive working life, and has procedures for follow-up and individual adaptation of workstations and work duties for employees with functional impairments.
• The hospital has its own procedure for following up pregnant women and risk assessment in pregnancy. The immediate supervisor is responsible for inviting pregnant women to three follow-up interviews during their pregnancy to assess the need for individual adaptation. The unit’s risk assessment of pregnant women’s working environment should form the basis for the interview.
• LDS is an inclusive workplace and has procedures to ensure that recruitment processes safeguard all qualified applicants, regardless of their background, disability or gaps in their CVs.
• The hospital has adopted procedures to facilitate the use of religious headwear as part of the hospital’s uniform.

Compilation of our work against discrimination and racism

• Procedure in the eHandbook for ‘Prevention and handling of harassment and other improper conduct’. The purpose of the procedure is that all LDS employees shall know the requirement for a sound working environment and what this means in terms of harassment and other improper conduct. The procedure shall also give employees and managers guidance on how such cases can be prevented, reported and handled.
• The hospital annually maps the organisational and psychosocial work environment using the ForBedring survey, including issues of discrimination and harassment (fig)

The survey is followed up with action plans at the unit level, and any units with ‘findings’ relating to harassment or discrimination are specifically followed up by HR in cooperation with the unit, both in terms of safeguarding the individual and measures at the system level, and in line with the hospital’s procedure ‘Prevention and handling of harassment and other improper conduct’.

• Guidelines have been drawn up for how biomedical laboratory technologists should handle patients who make racist comments, and for patients who refuse treatment based on the health worker’s ethnicity. The guidelines were made in response to the results from the 2022 ForBedring survey, which indicated that employees in the laboratory were subjected to racism from patients. The guidelines and communication training have contributed to employees expressing that they have been given tools to handle difficult situations and that they feel that the hospital has taken a clear position that the racist behaviour to which they have been subjected is unacceptable. The guidelines will also be relevant to use in other units that experience racism.
• We monitor and extract statistics on violence and threats, including those based on discrimination and harassment, in somatic and mental healthcare. The hospital has a systematic quality control and non-conformity system (Melius) where staff report undesirable incidents and employee incidents that a manager follows up in accordance with internal procedures. Risk assessments (ROS analyses) have been carried out at all departments/sections with a potential risk of violence and threats, and measures have been implemented. Four levels of training in violence and threat management, based on the MAP (Management of Aggressive Behaviour) methodology have been implemented, where employees participate based on the risk to which they may be exposed. Simulations have also been implemented, i.e. regular training and exercises based on potential cases relating to violence and threats.

Equality in research 

As of December 2023, there were approximately 22 employees in research positions, including PhD candidates, postdoctoral fellows, researchers and senior researchers, comprising 15 women and 7 men. In addition, approximately the same number are engaged in various research activities as part of their position, but are employed in other job categories (doctors, nurses, psychologists, biomedical laboratory technologists and other support staff). 

LDS is working towards achieving gender balance in leadership positions within research and research projects. LDS therefore supports competence and experience building for its researchers with regard to promotion to management and senior positions.

Definitions

Equality means that everyone has equal value, equal opportunities and equal rights.

Diversity is a collective term used to describe human differences – large and small – including age, nationality, functional differences, personality, values, education, sexual orientation or life experience.

Inclusion means participating on equal terms in social communities, having equal opportunities to succeed, and having a real influence on the rules of the community and how society works.

Discrimination means that some people are treated worse than others, without this differential treatment being justified, necessary or proportionate. It does not matter whether or not the intention of the differential treatment is to discriminate. Within the meaning of the Act, something must be related to one or more grounds for discrimination in order to constitute discrimination. Discrimination grounds/areas are currently: gender, functional impairment, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, religion and beliefs, ethnicity, care responsibilities, pregnancy, parental leave and adoption, preventing gender-based violence, harassment and sexual harassment, and multiple discrimination.

References

In Norway, there are several Acts and regulations that address equality and discrimination. Below are the most relevant acts in this area for the hospital:  

• The Norwegian Constitution contains several provisions addressing principles of equality.
• The Equality and Anti-Discrimination Act has provisions to promote equality and prevent discrimination on several grounds, including gender, ethnicity, religion, beliefs, functional impairment, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. The Act also enshrines the activity duty and the duty to issue a statement. 
• The Working Environment Act contains provisions on workers’ rights and obligations, and it prohibits discrimination and harassment in the workplace.

Other relevant documents

Action plan for equality, inclusion and diversity 2024–2027

Harassment – dealing with harassment in the workplace

Provisions in the Employee Portal regarding the recruitment of new employees