Productivity has been in the news for many years. For some time it was the principal concern of private employers, and the concept of increased efficiency was pitted against the workers' drive for security. More recently, increased productivity has become a central issue in public sector employment. As budgets have tightened under "tax payers' revolts," administrators of public agencies have sought to improve their benefit/cost ratios.Joint committees and councils, with union and management representation, have existed sporadically for half a century in countries of the western world. However, the phenomenon known as "productivity b argaining" first came to the fore wi th the Esso agreements at the Fawley Refinery in Britain in the 1 960's. It has experienced periods of rise and partial decline in Britain and has spread only haltingly in the U.S. and elsewhere. It remains to be seen whether the recent emphasis on productivity in the public sector will blossom into formalized union-management agreements with tradeoffs resulting in increased output per unit of input.
