Between state and market: the puzzle of employment relations in the public sector. A tribute to Lorenzo Bordogna

Abstract

Public service employment relations are experiencing a heightened period of disruption. In many countries labour shortages are evident in essential services and industrial action has re-emerged forcibly. Governments In European countries are struggling to reconcile fiscal constraints, rising demand and to maintain an engaged workforce. These challenges shape employment relations in the sector and the contradictory policies and interests that govern the public sector. These puzzles and the way in which they are constructed and partially resolved by the state in different countries was at the centre of the scholarship of Lorenzo Bordogna, reviewed and celebrated in this article.