1996 Public Sector Employment In a Time of Transition

Abstract

Pressures like those that led to the transformation of the private sector industrial relations system of the 1970s and 1980s are now affecting the public sector. Phrases like "reinventing" government (Osborne and Gaebler 1992), "re-engineering" the public sector, and "performancebased" government (Warrian 1995) illustrate the changes that are occurring. These pressures on employers in the public sector have concomitant implications for the employment relationship; they imply reinventing public sector labor relations, re-engineering the employment relationship, and instituting performance-based human resource practices. Issues of downsizing, job security, contingent employment, productivity bargaining, subcontracting, privatization, and succession rights are now prominent in the public sector. Joint ventures and alliances, mergers, separate business units, and internal pricing schemes--concepts that once were largely restricted to the private sector-are now common in the public sector. While the public sector was once regarded as a model for the introduction of progressive employment practices into the private sector, the pressure is now in the opposite direction, with the public sector often being called upon to be a model of restraint. Strategic choices that have been crucial for the development of human resource practices in the private sector will be equally crucial for all actors in the public sector.