IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ecoind/v32y2011i3p523-544.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The liberalization of public services: Company reactions and consequences for employment and working conditions

Author

Listed:
  • Jörg Flecker

    (Forschungs- und Beratungsstelle Arbeitswelt (FORBA), Austria, flecker@forba.at)

  • Christoph Hermann

    (Forschungs- und Beratungsstelle Arbeitswelt (FORBA), Austria)

Abstract

This article analyses how companies that provide public services respond to liberalization, privatization and marketization. The empirical research is based on 23 company case studies from four sectors and six countries. The case studies involved 185 interviews with managers, trade union and works council representatives and workers. Company reactions include mergers and acquisitions, internationalization and the diversification of supply; the diversification of customer relations, including new pricing policies; a reduction of production costs through concentration, outsourcing and the introduction of new technology; and the reduction of employment and the payment of lower wages (through lower wages for new employees, the creation of independent subsidiaries and outsourcing). Overall, the case studies show that the main goal, the reduction of production costs, has been achieved at the cost of workers, many of whom have experienced liberalization and privatization as the deterioration of employment and working conditions. The impact on productivity and quality were mixed.

Suggested Citation

  • Jörg Flecker & Christoph Hermann, 2011. "The liberalization of public services: Company reactions and consequences for employment and working conditions," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 32(3), pages 523-544, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:32:y:2011:i:3:p:523-544
    DOI: 10.1177/0143831X10389201
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0143831X10389201
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0143831X10389201?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:32:y:2011:i:3:p:523-544. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ekhist.uu.se/english.htm .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.