Everything Changes, But It All Stays the Same. Labour Market Parties, Corporatism and Norwegian Sick Pay Policies 1978–2014

Abstract

Since the adoption of a generous and universal sick pay scheme in 1978, the key elements of Norwegian sick pay policies have remained the same. The present study focuses on the gradual developments in welfare corporatism and policymaking during this period, arguing that these changes paved the way for new and surprising strategies and behaviour among the labour market parties. Tracking several retrenchment attempts across decades, the analyses show how policymaking in corporatist committees was gradually replaced by less predictable processes. Successive governments of different colors have tried to bypass the social partners and legislate hierarchically, thus signaling a break with traditional corporatist norms and decision rules. Labour and business groups adapted by negotiating a pact that kept the existing distribution of economic risks in the sick pay scheme off the political agenda, and by backing each other and creating negative attention to government in the media to protect the pact. In sum, although sick pay policies have remained largely unchanged, this is a status quo upheld by processes of welfare policymaking that have changed substantially. The pact between the social partners and the state is currently a new vetopoint for welfare policymaking. But the piecemeal institutional transformation witnessed in this period, together with the need for conflictual media strategies and new alliances to protect the pact, suggest that it could be a fragile veto- point.