For Engineering Consultants Norway AS

Employee Manual

for Engineering Consultants Norway AS

Consultants

Rev. 01. Contents:

1. Information about ECN AS 2. ECN AS is your employer 3. Particularly for subcontractors 4. Working environment/HSE 5. Professional secrecy 6. CV 7. Follow-up during assignments a. Your contact b. If you resign c. Evaluation 8. Timesheet 9. Job related travel and travel invoices 10. Working hours, holiday and off duty a. Working hours b. Overtime c. Overtime pay d. Public holidays and flexible holidays e. Holiday and holiday pay 11. Illness and other absence a. Illness b. Self-certification c. Medical certificate d. Absence because of sick children e. Maternity leave 12. Pension and insurance a. Mandatory Occupational Pension b. Insurance

of 8 1. Information about ECN AS ECN is a Norwegian consultancy. The object of ECN is to recruit, mediate and offer hired out labour such as engineer, technical illustrator and project administrative personell. ECN`s main area of operation includes the shipping industry, oil & gas industry, architects, construction and building industry, public sector and other domestic industry.

2. ECN is your employer. ECN is your employer, and to whom you have to deal with in all work related situations. Discussions and questions regarding economical conditions or other related matter should never be discussed with the contractor.

If an unfortunate incident should occur at your work place, it is your contact at ECN you should inform.

If you become ill or absent from work due to other reasons, you have to inform ECN as soon as possible.

To fulfill the requirement for equal treatment in accordance with AML § 14 to 12 a, ECN is responsible for the hired out employee is at least ensured the conditions that he / she had been offered if the employee was employed by the customer to perform the same work, where § 14 - 12b ensures equal treatment requirements are followed. Details of salary and other terms will appear on your Assignment Agreement.

3. Particularly for Subcontractors

The following articles in this employee manual will not come into effect for consultants from subcontractors Art. 2 Art. 8 Art. 9 Art. 10 b, c, d, e Art. 11 Art. 12

The same rule applies for consultants from our subcontractors as for our own employees regarding:

 You have to deal with ECN in all work related situations.  Economical conditions are a matter of discussion between the subcontractor and ECN and not with the contractor.  If you become ill or absent from work due to other reasons, you have to inform ECN as soon as possible. If an unfortunate incident should occur at your work place, it is your contact at ECN you should inform.

Invoices Invoices are to be sent two days after cut-off at the latest (last Sunday) every month (enclosed travel invoices). This is to ensure correct payment. The invoice have to contain copies of contractor- and consultant signed hour lists from the contractors own system. To ensure payment, correct invoice documentation must be received by ECN.

of 8 Job related travel and travel invoices Regarding job related travel on behalf of the contractor, ECN will act according to the contractor`s guidelines. It is the responsibility of the consultant to look into and follow these guidelines beforehand.

Travel requisition and travel allowance form from the contractor has to be used. All job travel invoices have to be signed by the contractor and the consultant. All loose vouchers have to be glued on to an A-4 sheet.

Travel invoices can be invoiced ECN without mark-up immediately after end of travel. Payment will be done as soon as ECN has received the travel invoices.

4. Working environment/HSE ECN and our contractors are engaged in a good working environment. It is important that you are minded to follow the rules and routines that exist at your workplace. Be sure you follow rules and regulations regarding the use of E-mail, inter/intranet and telephone, and avoid anything that may be understood as misuse of the working hours. It is your responsibility to look into the internal safety routines and HSE routines existing at your workplace.

If you should experience a misfortune, accident or near accident at the workplace, we kindly ask you to fill in the Deviation form which you will find as a document under “Log inn” at www.ecn.as or contact your contact at ECN to get the form forwarded to you. A complete form is to be sent to ECN for further management.

5. Professional secrecy As an employee for ECN you have professional secrecy concerning both ECN and our contractors business and management conditions. We therefore ask you to sign our declaration of confidentiality and one from the contractor, if they demand it. If the declaration of confidentiality is not followed, both the consultant and ECN can be exposed of serious consequences. To be on the safe side, you should regard all information you get in accordance with your work as confidential and not share this information with any outsider.

6. CV Remember to always update your CV on a regular basis. The CV should at all times be updated with courses taken, new qualification and/or new assignments. In this way your CV will always be ready when new offers are to be sent to our contractors.

7. Follow-up during assignment a. Contact person If an unfortunate incident should occur or you have questions during your assignment you can at any time talk to your contact at ECN. It is important for us that you are content during your assignment. We know that when you are content it increases the chances that the contractor is satisfied with your work.

b. Resignation If you at anytime wish to end your assignment please contact us as soon as possible. If you wish to resign during an assignment, we refer to the mutual terms of notice in your contract. Always remember that you are welcome back!

c. Evaluation ECN practices evaluation of all assignments. This will be carried out by the end of every assignment, and will give us information about contractors satisfaction regarding services rendered.

of 8 8. Timesheet Timesheet are to be registered in ECNs portal - Log in via Login my page on www.ecn.as:

Deadline is normally Tuesday in the week after cut-off, (cut-off is normally last Sunday in the month). Timesheet that are delivered after deadline may result in delayed payment of salary.

9. Job related travel and travel sheet Regarding job related travel on behalf of the contractor, ECN will act according to the contractor`s guidelines. It is the responsibility of the consultant to look into and follow these guidelines beforehand.

Travel requisition and travel allowance form from the contractor have to be used. All job related travel sheet have to be signed by the contractor and the consultant. All receipts must be attached. Scanned copies are accepted.

Travel sheet must be sent ECN without mark-up immediately after end of travel. Payment will be done as soon as ECN has received the travel invoices. Travel sheet received later than 10 days after end of travel will not be reimbursed.

Travel sheet for commuters must be correctly filled in and signed with original receipts attached.

All travel sheets with receipts attached are to be sent by mail to the following address: [email protected]

10. Working hours, holidays and days off work. a. Working hours Ordinary working hours will normally not exceed 7.5 hour per day, exclusive lunch, if other is not agreed upon.

b. Overtime Rules for overtime should be in accordance with the Norwegian “Arbeidsmiljøloven”, Working Environment act. All ECN consultants have an independent responsibility to keep the rules. The limit for working overtime is as follows (unless it is given special dispensation): 4 hours during 24 hours 10 hours during 7 days 25 hours during four connected weeks 200 hours within a period of 52 weeks

c. Overtime pay If working hours exceeds either 9 hours per day or 40 hours per week, ECN will disburse overtime pay, if this is specified in the assignment confirmation. If you have an agreement of shortened working hours, you have to fulfil the demand for 9 hours per day or 40 hours per week before ECN disburse you for overtime. Working hours carried out after agreed working time, but within ordinary working hours will be compensated after ordinary rates.

d. Public holidays and flexible holidays

According to the following rules, you may get paid for flexible holidays when the flexible holiday is on a day you normally should have been working.

of 8 Public holidays: May 1st and May 17th You will get paid for these days if you have been in continuous work for ECN at a period of at least 30 days. Normal salary will be paid out for the period you normally should have been working. Salary for all other public / flexible holidays is included in your normal hourly salary.

Day(s) in connection to public holidays If the contractor`s office is closed the entire day or part of the day, you will get paid for the time you are actually working.

e. Vacation/vacation pay As a consultant in ECN it is your choice how long and how often you want to be on holiday/leave between assignments. Planned holiday when you are on an assignment have to be agreed with the contractor and your contact at ECN.

Vacation pay is earned the year before you have your vacation. You are entitled to vacation pay if you have been working for ECN the year before your vacation. Vacation pay is 12 % of salary in the year of earning and will be paid out medio June. For employees over 60 years of age the vacation pay is 14,3 %.

If you finish your contract with ECN, your vacation pay for the present year will be paid out together with last ordinary salary in accordance to the Vacation Law § 11 third segment. This pay out of vacation pay is taxable.

11. Illness and other absence a. Illness As an employee you have to inform the employer (ECN) the first day of absence. The employer`s obligation to pay sick pay applies from the day the information about sick leave is informed.

The employer period starts the first whole day of absence due to work disability, cf. Law of National Insurance § 8-19 second segment. This is independent of the sick-leave is documented through self certified sick leave or medical certificate. This means that if you become sick at work and leave the office, you will according to the Law of National Insurance not have any claim for sick pay the rest of the day.

You are not entitled to sick pay before having worked at least four weeks at ECN. Sick pay is calculated from your average income (basic salary) at ECN the four last weeks before you became sick. Should large divergences occur a longer estimation period can be used. The sick pay cannot exceed 6G (6 times basic amount of National Insurance). Sick pay beyond employer period, which is 16 days, is paid by NAV.

If more than two weeks passes between assignments (apart from agreed vacation leave of no more than three weeks) you have to build up four new weeks (medical certificate) and two months (self certified sick leave) to be entitled to pay during illness.

b. Self-certification The employee must have been assigned continuously in two months with the employer from when the employee accedes to a contract, before self certified sick leave can be used. The self certified sick leave has to be filled in and returned to ECN immediately after the absence. If the self certified sick leave is not handed over, the employee is not entitled to get paid in accordance with sick leave. Sick leave which lasts more than three days has to be documented by medical certificate.

You may use self certified sick leave for sick leave until three calendar days during a 16 days period, counting from the first day of absence and onwards. Self certified sick leave cannot be made use of more than until 4 – four – times during a 12 months period in total, regardless of the number of contractors.

of 8 If you do not possess the form for self certified sick leave, you can ask for it when you are notifying the sick leave.

c. Medical certificate If you get sick after your first four weeks, but before you have been employed by ECN in two months, you have to deliver medical certificate from a doctor to be entitled to salary during sick leave. This certificate has to be sent to ECN immediately.

d. Absence because of sick children In order to get paid from during children`s, or the childminders illness, you have to been working at least four weeks for ECN. The duty to report to ECN is the same as if own illness.

Self certified sick leave / medical certificate are valid including the year the child is 12 years old. The age limit is increased to 18 years for children that suffers of a chronicle disease or if disabled. Employees with care for one or two children are entitled to sick pay up to 10 days every calendar year, 20 days for single parents. If you have the care for three or more children, the right to absence with sick pay increases to 15 days, 30 days for single parents.

If you have to leave work because of sick children or the child minding person, equalises parts of the day with a whole benefit-day, and you will according to Law of National Insurance be entitled to sick leave for the rest of the day. An employee who is absent from work because of necessary care of sick children, may be absent until three days without medical certificate. From the fourth day of absence you have to present statement from a doctor, documenting the child`s illness.

The number of days per year is added up, regardless the number of contractors you may have in the period.

e. Maternity leave According to Law of national insurance parents who has been working in at least six of the last ten months before birth are entitled to maternity pay from NAV in a specific period. NAV will give you more information about this. You can contact them directly or se their internet site www.nav.no for more information.

12. Pension and insurance a. Mandatory Occupational Pension.

ECN pays pension contribution according to Law of national insurance

§4 Minimum requirements to pension scheme with pension contribution: for more information follow this link: http://www.lovdata.no/all/tl-20051221-124-0.html#4

Every employee over 20 years in minimum 20 % job becomes part of the pension scheme. If you are sick, you will be part again when reported fit.

You will be withdrawn from the pension scheme if the following occurs: You have had less than 20% job during the last 12 months You have a more than 3 months time off from work If you have been a member of a pension scheme for at least 12 months, you will keep the saved pension contribution. Being a member less than 12 months, you will lose this privilege. It is Gjensidige who administrates your pension scheme and administer the pension contribution to your account. It is ECN who pays the contribution to your pension scheme.

b. Insurance When employed by ECN you are automatically covered by the following insurance scheme:

Occupational injury insurance:

of 8 Injury or illness caused during work. The injury must have happened at work on the working premises during work hours

Offshore insurance: This insurance covers employees that are working for the employer with a contractor on an oil installation at the coast. It is important that you beforehand inform your ECN contact when going offshore.

Travel-insurance: This insurance covers every employee who does official journey for ECN or ECN employer while at work. It is of great importance that you are informing your ECN contact of where and when you intend to travel. Insurance certificate will be sent you by contacting ECN.

Expat Insurance: See Par. 6 in ECN Expatriate Policy and Handbook

Thank you for reading this and learning the content!

We will do our utmost to make you feel comfortable as an employee at ECN, and we invite you to contact us if there is anything you miss or want to comment on in this employee manual.

Engineering Consultants Norway AS

Ragnhild H. Løvestad General Manager