Abstract
This paper presents a case study of the outsourcing of IT services between 1996 and 2003 by the Government of Ontario using a Public Private Partnership (P3) as an example of the commodification of public services including the impact on labour. It argues that three key features of the arrangement led to it becoming an ‘unequal partnership.’ First, ideological notions of a ‘knowledge economy’ and the techno-wizard status of independent IT workers were used by IT corporations to charge very high corporate rates for the time of outsourced IT staff, despite the fact that they were in fact undergoing a process of proletarianisation. Second, the P3 cost-benefit structure of shared costs and shared payments provided the framework for corporate partners to realise higher profits from investment in privatised state activities. Third, the explicit support of influential state and near-state actors undermined opposition to P3 projects.
Highlights
The central question addressed in this article is: what is the connection between the accelerated growth of Information Technology (IT) privatisation and the restructuring of the public sector IT labour force?
Widespread privatisation occurs within the context of a transforming economy in the public sector; one that increasingly adopts the dynamics and labour relations of capitalist employment: capital accumulation and the production of surplus value
Elmar Altvater (2004) maintains that as public goods are commodified by the allocation of property rights, their associated public sector workers are transformed into productive workers, producers of surplus value
Summary
The central question addressed in this article is: what is the connection between the accelerated growth of IT privatisation and the restructuring of the public sector IT labour force?. Widespread privatisation occurs within the context of a transforming economy in the public sector; one that increasingly adopts the dynamics and labour relations of capitalist employment: capital accumulation and the production of surplus value This process can be regarded as a form of commodification (Huws, 2003; Altvater, 2004; Leys, 2001). This article uses a case study approach to analyse one example of this: the privatisation of Information Technology (IT) systems in the Ontario Public Service (OPS) It explores the particular conjuncture of circumstances that formed the context of this privatisation, which took place at a moment when lucrative investment opportunities were opened up in an increasingly marketised Canadian state. It explores two consequences of these developments: the proletarianisation of independent techno-consultants and the expropriation of their skills
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