Economic crisis and municipal public service employment: comparing developments in seven EU Member States

Abstract

This article examines the impact of austerity policies in seven EU Member States on municipal employment and the ways in which social dialogue can influence consequences for employees. It provides a comparative institutional framework, looking at municipal tasks and powers, and the social dialogue institutions available in the respective countries. In addition, the outcomes of austerity policies are compared with regard to wages, employment levels and the public service provision, as well as the influence of social dialogue institutions on these outcomes. Trade unions and workplace employee representatives face a dilemma, having to choose between concession bargaining and opposition to employer plans in order to preserve public sector employment. Between and within countries there seem to be significant differences in their success. Generally speaking, however, these are tough times for municipal workers, their representatives and citizens dependent on the services municipalities offer. Ré suméCet article examine l'impact, dans sept États membres de l'UE, des politiques d'austérité sur l'emploi municipal et la manière dont le dialogue social peut influencer les conséquences pour les travailleurs. Il offre un cadre institutionnel comparatif, en examinant les tâches et les pouvoirs des municipalités et les institutions du dialogue social présentes dans les différents pays. En outre, les résultats des politiques d'austérité sont comparés en termes de salaires, de niveau d'emploi et d'offre de services publics, mais aussi d'influence des institutions du dialogue social sur ces résultats. Les syndicats et les représentants des travailleurs sur le lieu de travail sont confrontés à un dilemme qui les contraint à choisir entre la négociation de concessions et une opposition aux plans de l'employeur pour préserver l'emploi dans le secteur public. Les succès qu'ils obtiennent Downloaded from sont très variables d'un pays à l'autre et au sein d'un même pays. De manière générale, cependant, les temps sont durs pour les travailleurs municipaux, leurs représentants et les citoyens qui dépendent des services offerts par les municipalités. ZusammenfassungDieser Artikel untersucht die Auswirkungen der Austeritätspolitik auf die Beschäftigung in den Kommunalverwaltungen in sieben EU-Mitgliedstaaten und befasst sich mit der Frage, wie der soziale Dialog die Folgen für die Arbeitnehmer beeinflussen kann. Er vergleicht die institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen, befasst sich mit den Aufgaben und Kompetenzen der Kommunen und beschreibt die Institutionen des sozialen Dialogs in den einzelnen Ländern. Darüber hinaus enthält der Artikel eine vergleichende Ü bersicht über die Folgen der Austeritätspolitik auf die Lö hne, das Beschäftigungsniveau und die Erbringung ö ffentlicher Dienste und beschreibt den Einfluss der Institutionen des sozialen Dialogs auf diese Entwicklungen. Gewerkschaften und betriebliche Arbeitnehmervertreter stehen vor einem Dilemma, da sie entweder bei Verhandlungen erhebliche Konzessionen an die Arbeitgeber machen müsse...

People Management in the Public Sector

“…Austerity has also affected employment and wages of government employees, resulting in job loss and wage freezes, or even substantial cuts in wages, in many countries. However, again there are significant differences between countries' austerity policies and the public sector reform policies they pursue (Leisink and Bach 2014). These twin effects of ongoing government austerity policies demonstrate that for public organizations organizational outcomes (including efficiency), client and societal outcomes (such as service quality and accessibility), and employee outcomes are closely related.…”

Public Personnel Reforms and Public Sector HRM in Europe

“…Following the financial crisis in 2008, most European Member States pursued austerity policies for a number of consecutive years. Several comparative empirical studies (Bach and Bordogna 2013; Leisink and Bach 2014) show that wage freezes were the result of unilaterally imposed central government decision-making in for instance France, italy, Hungary, the Netherlands, and the UK. Given the factual context prevalent across many European countries, a recentralization rather than a decentralization is likely to have occurred.…”

European collective action in times of crisis

“…As shown in the recent issues of Transfer on 'Labour markets and social policy after the crisis' (1/2014) and 'Austerity and public sector restructuring: local government in focus' (3/2014), dealing also with the intensification of the European marketization project (Crouch, 2014), restructuring in response to the crisis represents an enormous challenge to the European labour movement. Even public sector workers, who hitherto had been less affected by the Europeanization of the economy, can hardly be depicted anymore as employees of a 'sheltered' sector (Leisink and Bach, 2014;Molina, 2014;Stan, 2014). And yet, workers and unions are not without weapons.…”

“…Even public sector workers, who hitherto had been less affected by the Europeanization of the economy, can hardly be depicted anymore as employees of a 'sheltered' sector (Leisink and Bach, 2014;Molina, 2014;Stan, 2014). And yet, workers and unions are not without weapons.…”