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Pandemic effects on public service employment in Australia

Author

Listed:
  • Linda Colley
  • Shelley Woods
  • Brian Head

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is sending shockwaves through communities and economies, and public servants have risen to the novel policy challenges in uncharted waters. This crisis comes on top of considerable turmoil for public services in recent decades, with public management reforms followed by the global financial crisis (GFC) leading to considerable change to public sector employment relations and a deprivileging of public servants. The research adopts the lens of the ‘public service bargain’ to examine the effects of the pandemic across Australian public services. How did Australian public service jurisdictions approach public employment in 2020, across senior and other cohorts of employees? How did this pandemic response compare to each jurisdictions’ response to the GFC a decade earlier? The research also reflects more broadly of the impact on public sector employment relations and to what extent pandemic responses have altered concepts of the diminished public service bargain or the notion of governments as model employers? JEL Codes J45

Suggested Citation

  • Linda Colley & Shelley Woods & Brian Head, 2022. "Pandemic effects on public service employment in Australia," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 33(1), pages 56-79, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:33:y:2022:i:1:p:56-79
    DOI: 10.1177/10353046211056093
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Linda Colley, 2016. "Reshaping the public service bargain in Queensland 2009–2014: Responding to austerity?," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 27(1), pages 81-97, March.
    2. Stephen Bach, 2016. "Deprivileging the public sector workforce: Austerity, fragmentation and service withdrawal in Britain," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 27(1), pages 11-28, March.
    3. Mariana Mazzucato & Rainer Kattel, 0. "COVID-19 and public-sector capacity," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 36(Supplemen), pages 256-269.
    4. Linda Colley & Sue Williamson & Meraiah Foley, 2021. "Understanding, ownership, or resistance: Explaining persistent gender inequality in public services," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 284-300, January.
    5. World Bank, 2020. "Managing the Public Sector Wage Bill during COVID-19," World Bank Publications - Reports 34324, The World Bank Group.
    6. Linda Colley & Brian Head, 2013. "Changing Patterns of Privatization: Ideology, Economic Necessity, or Political Opportunism," International Journal of Public Administration, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(12), pages 865-875.
    7. Philip Morgan & Nigel Allington, 2002. "Has the Public Sector Retained its ‘Model Employer’ Status?," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(1), pages 35-42, January.
    8. B. Peters & Jon Pierre & Tiina Randma-Liiv, 2011. "Global Financial Crisis, Public Administration and Governance: Do New Problems Require New Solutions?," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 13-27, March.
    9. Sue Williamson & Michael O’Donnell & Cameron Roles, 2016. "Bargaining over Australian public service cuts: Do forcing strategies work?," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 27(1), pages 46-63, March.
    10. Michael, Maria & Christofides, Louis N., 2020. "The impact of austerity measures on the public - private sector wage gap in Europe," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    11. Mariana Mazzucato & Rainer Kattel, 2020. "COVID-19 and public-sector capacity," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 36(Supplemen), pages 256-269.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    public service bargain; pandemic; Global Financial Crisis; wage freeze; downsizing; Australia; public sector reform; austerity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J45 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Public Sector Labor Markets

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