Pensioners could work until August 2022 with the corona crisis without losing their pension
The government made it possible for retired personnel to return to work in the healthcare system without losing any retirement or contractual pension. This applied to both mandatory and voluntary work in the public health service in connection with the coronavirus.
It was decided from 20. March 2020 that as long as the employer / business was covered by the Norwegian Health Preparedness Act, a retired member's mandatory or voluntary service, which was necessary to meet an extraordinary personnel need in connection with covid-19, would be covered by the scheme. Their retirement pension was thus not truncated, as it normally would be due to earnings.
Support functions that were not directly health-related were also covered by the Health Preparedness Act and these temporary changes in the regulations. What "work in connection with covid-19" actually meant must be clarified in dialogue between employer and employee.
This applied to retired members of The Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund and the Pension Scheme for pharmacy operations. Disability pensioners were not covered by the temporary changes in the regulations.
Pharmacies are not considered part of the public health service. However, from 1 November 2020, the scheme was extended, so that retired members of the Pharmacy Pension Scheme could be ordered back to work at a pharmacy without having their retirement or contractual pension cut short.
Voluntary service in pharmacies was still not covered by the scheme. However, employers have very limited access to order pensioners back to work, so in practice very few pensioners were affected by the change. These exception rules applied until 31 August 2022.