Two decades ago, central government employee wages were set according to staff’s formal degree and time in service. Today, individual and differentiated wages are set based on the results achieved by the individual employee. The national framework wages agreements give the local social partners the opportunity to set wages based on operational prerequisites and employees’ contribution to success. The intention is to create a wage formation process that stimulates engagement and development.

The mission includes:

• Running a special, powerful web-based statistical tool, the BESTA-way, that helps local social partners analyse differences in wages between men and women. The aim is to identify and eliminate differences in pay that are not motivated by objective grounds. This tool has to be used as a part of local partners’ wider analyses and discussions in their wage formation process.
• Providing examples from and knowledge about successful work between local social partners.
• Advising on the importance of tempo in wage formation.
• Improving the knowledge and sharing of experiences of how the stipulated negotiation process works.
• Improving the quality and visibility of each worker’s contribution to operational objectives and results.
• Providing knowledge of and support to the dialogue between managers and staff.

Some of the activities are common to all of the social partners, while some are carried out by the employer and one of the three national unions according to differing agreements.