Variable pay, collective bargaining and trade unions: A comparison of machinery and banking companies in Norway

This article analyses how the introduction of variable pay systems (VPS) has affected the role of trade unions and collective bargaining in company pay setting, and the role of these institutions in shaping VPS in Norwegian companies in blue-collar machinery production and white-collar banking services. The development of VPS has been fairly smoothly handled by the actors within, and with the help of, the established industrial relations institutions. In the machinery companies, VPS implied minimal changes in collective bargaining, whereas in banking significant individualization and more ambiguous effects for the role of company unions in pay setting were found.