70 percent in Norway want to continue working from home

Seven out of ten people have said they want to continue working from home once the pandemic is over, according to a new survey from Norway’s Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. 

“I’m a little surprised by these numbers because I’ve got the impression that people are starting to get bored,” Labour Minister Torbjørn Røe Isaksen told state broadcaster NRK. 

Only five percent of the survey’s 5,000 participants said they wanted to ditch the home office altogether. 

The most popular working from home option for participants was a home office for two days a week, with the rest of the working week spent travelling into work.

Equinor plans for its oil production to continue for decades 

State-owned energy firm Equinor is planning to continue its oil production long-term, as it believes it is unlikely the climate goal set out by the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees will be met. 

“We will maintain profitable production from, for example, the Troll and Johan Sverdrup facilities for many decades to come, probably for as long as Equinor and the Ministry for Petroleum and Energy exist,” Equinor’s Chief Economist, Erik Wærness, told newspaper Klassekampen.

READ MORE: Norway taps oil wealth to cushion Covid impact 

He did add that Equinor had committed itself to being climate neutral by 2050.

His comments come after a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) said there is no room to open any new oil or gas fields if the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees by 2050 is to be met. 

Union may take even more workers out on strike

Unio, which has taken more than 7,000 public sector employees on strike across Norway, will consider taking even more employees on strike. 

“We will constantly consider taking more on strike,” Steffen Handal, Unios chief negotiator, told news agency NTB. 

Nearly 180 primary and secondary schools across Norway have been affected by the strikes so far, in addition to 35 kindergartens.

Unio took its members on strike after mediation talks over wage settlements broke down in the early hours of Thursday. 

409 new Covid-19 infections in Norway 

On Thursday, 409 coronavirus cases were recorded, 72 fewer cases than the seven-day average of 481. 

This is also a drop of 90 compared to Wednesday. 

In Oslo, 54 new cases of Covid-19 were registered, 11 fewer than the seven-day average. 

READ MORE: How did Covid-19 affect immigration in Norway in 2020 

The R-number or reproduction rate in Norway is currently 1.0. This means that infections are at a steady level in Norway as for every ten people that are infected, they will, on average, only infect another ten people.