Our local exceptions register: 41 entries, and the rule that stops it growing

We are a Nordic engineering consultancy, roughly 6,500 people in 14 countries, on a single global framework of ten levels since 2023. From day one country leaders asked for exceptions, and for the first year we handled them by email, which meant nobody could say how many existed.

We now keep a register. Every exception has an owner, a reason from a fixed list of four (law, collective agreement, market practice, legacy) and an expiry date. Legal and collective-agreement exceptions renew automatically; the other two lapse after 24 months unless re-argued.

Of 41 entries today, 19 are legacy and I expect most to lapse. The expiry date has done more than any governance committee. Curious whether others time-limit exceptions or regard them as permanent.