Market-Making and Deregulation: Implications for Labour and Employment Relations

Abstract

The chapter deals with the outsourcing of public services in two British public administrations—a municipality and an NHS foundation trust—and its consequences for working conditions, employment relations institutions and the trade unions. For each case, the analysis sheds light on three analytical dimensions: the main drivers of outsourcing; the consequences for terms and conditions of employment and collective bargaining; and the strategies that trade unions implemented in the workplace in response to these measures. The strong ideological belief in the superiority of market competition for the provision of public services through a hollowing out of the role of the state has led to a series of legislative interventions promoting outsourcing practices since the 1980s. Outsourcing resulted in particularly detrimental consequences for working conditions and to an overall commodification of labour (including massive redundancy procedures, fragmentation and deterioration of terms and conditions of employment) and cut into contractual arrangements. Moreover, following outsourcing, employers’ unilateral definition of working conditions substituted the collective regulation of labour. The trade unions responded to such challenges with a defensive strategy oriented towards opposing marketisation of public services and preserving public employment, but it turned to be weak and ineffective.