The Norwegian government has opened a public consultation on the long-held plan to broaden mandatory occupational pension coverage by removing the lower earnings threshold at which employers make contributions, but worker and employer representations are in sharp disagreement over the terms.

The Ministry of Finance published the report it received from the working group convened to come up with a plan on savings “from the first krone” in defined contribution mandatory occupational pension (obligatorisk tjenestepensjon, OTP) schemes.

The group, which included employer and employee representatives, also looked at whether employees under 20 and part-timers on less than 20% time should be entitled to membership in all types of occupational pension schemes.

Jan Tore Sanner, finance minister, said: “Pension from the first krone and the first day are important issues for many employees and for the parties in working life.

“It is good that we have now studied various alternatives for the potential accrual of a pension from the first krone, and mapped the costs for the various elements,” he said.

There was now a good factual basis to work on, Sanner said.

The “pension from the first krone” (pensjon fra første krone) plan is in a similar vein to the “pension from the first day” reform already on track to be introduced in 2021 in Norway, with the latter giving employees the right to pension earnings even if they have been employed for less than a year.

The ministry said that since there had been different views in the working group on the issues addressed, the group had made no joint recommendation, but studied the consequences of various possible changes.

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