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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
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    3. 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.
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    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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