Employment Security in Public Services: A Political and Industrial Contest Over the Institutionalization of Employment Security in the Queensland Public Service
| Date | 01 December 2019 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0091026019851530 |
| Published date | 01 December 2019 |
| Author | Linda Colley |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
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Article
Public Personnel Management
2019, Vol. 48(4) 608 –626
Employment Security in
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and Industrial Contest Over
the Institutionalization of
Employment Security in the
Queensland Public Service
Linda Colley1
Abstract
Public sector employment security is a central tenet of the public service bargain in many
countries to provide continuity beyond an electoral cycle and support frank and fearless
advice. Employment security was often an implicit condition, diluted by rounds of public
management reform and the global financial crisis (GFC), but retained in some form.
Following reforms and downsizing in the 1990s in the Australian state of Queensland,
unions redressed the implicit nature of employment security by institutionalizing it
in formal policies, enforceable regulations, and collective agreements. The research
focuses on policy changes under a government with a large electoral majority that
was prepared to breach its electoral commitments, and the institutional arrangements
in these employment policies and collective agreements. It highlights the power of
government as both employer and legislator, and the potential fragility of the public
service bargain when a government has the will to exercise that power.
Keywords
civil service reform, new public management, unions/labor, government as employer
and legislator, employment security
Introduction
The public sector was traditionally perceived as having greater employment security
than other sectors of the labor market. This was more than just good employment
1Appleton Institute, School of Business and Law, CQUniversity, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Corresponding Author:
Linda Colley, Appleton Institute, School of Business and Law, HRM, CQUniversity, L21, 160 Ann Street,
Brisbane, Queensland 4000, Australia.
Email: l.colley@cqu.edu.au
Colley
609
practice, but rather to support stability in the political environment and ensure public
servants were free to provide frank and fearless advice without fear of dismissal
(Pollitt & Bouckaert, 2011). Hur and Perry (2016) note that “job security is a concept
of enduring importance in public administration” in the United States, and had become
institutionalized and widely accepted (p. 264). However, the widespread principle of
job security was often an implicit feature of employment rather than a legal entitle-
ment, which made it susceptible to challenge amid public sector reforms in recent
decades (Bach & Bordogna, 2011; Condrey & Battaglio, 2007; Hur & Perry, 2016).
These challenges have increased in some countries since the onset of global financial
crisis (GFC; around 2008-2009 in Australia). Nonetheless, the principle has generally
endured in some form or other.
This research examines the novel circumstances of the Australian state of
Queensland. It briefly traces the historical approaches to employment security, includ-
ing the implicit approach up until the 1980s, followed by more formal institutionaliza-
tion of employment security in government policy commitments to employment
security in 2000 and beyond. This institutionalization of employment security sur-
vived the early and more severe stages of the GFC (Colley, 2012), but was dismantled
under the policy changes and a large-scale downsizing program of the subsequent
Newman administration elected in 2012 (Sheldon & Thornthwaite, 2013). The
Newman administration overturned decades of implicit policy commitment to employ-
ment security as well as the more recent institutionalization, at a time when any finan-
cial necessity from the GFC appeared to have abated.
The findings highlight the unique nature of public employment. Elements of the
public service bargain, such as employment security, are often based on implicit com-
mitments and long-standing practices. Governments control the institutional space
through their powerful dual role as employer and legislator, not only being the negotia-
tor of employment agreements covering conditions for their own workforce, but also
the author of the laws governing the broader industrial environment in which those
agreements apply and are upheld. A government can, in certain circumstances such as
holding a parliamentary majority, exercise their power as legislator to change the
broader industrial environment and nullify legislated protections with the stroke of a
pen. Deinstitutionalizing employment security can also remove the benefits that came
with it, such as the safe environment for frank and fearless advice. Given increasing
evidence of the effects on employee well-being of sudden job insecurity (Burchell,
2011), these actions are likely to have profound effects on public service delivery. The
study is a reminder of the element of goodwill required to maintain employment secu-
rity and the broader public service bargain.
Conceptualizing Changing Concepts of Employment
Security
Traditional Employment Security in Public Services
Historically, governments in many Anglophone countries have been perceived as pro-
viding greater employment security than the private sector. This was part of a “public
610
Public Personnel Management 48(4)
service bargain,” which Hood (2000, p. 1) describes as the “explicit or implicit bar-
gains between public servants and other actors in society.” Public servants commit to
serve the government of the day in exchange for a set of conditions to support that
commitment. A key element of the bargain was that public servants would have per-
manence and continuity beyond electoral cycles to protect them from the whims of
changing governments and to support frank and fearless advice without fear of dis-
missal (Parker, 1978; Pollitt & Bouckaert, 2011). While often perceived as strong,
tenure was generally an implicit part of the employment contract or bargain, rather
than a legal entitlement (McCarry, 1994; Zekic, 2016).
The bargain therefore contained an inbuilt tension between the independence of
public servants and their responsiveness to government, and the potential that dis-
placed administrative accountability could lead to an unresponsive bureaucracy (Pollitt
& Bouckaert, 2011; Wanna, 1992). The challenge was to find the balance between
legitimate political leadership of the public service and unwarranted intrusion into its
management (Smith & Corbett, 1999). The Royal Commission into Australian
Government Administration (1976) and other inquiries all criticized the perceived lack
of responsiveness caused by this independence element of the public service bargain,
and urged some strengthening of political control and rebalancing of the inbuilt ten-
sion between independence and responsiveness.
At around the same time as this pressure on the job security in the public service
bargain, neoliberal reforms and a global economic downturn affected traditional full-
time employment across labor markets in Australian and other countries (Organization
for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2015). Economic pressures
led to redundancies in the 1960s and 1970s, particularly among blue-collar workers
(Littler, Dunford, Bramble, & Hede, 1997). The International Labour Organization
(ILO; 1982) responded to this trend with the Termination of Employment Convention,
and Australia became a signatory to that convention in 1993. This convention outlined
certain rights and conditions for the termination of ongoing or tenured employees,
including the need for a valid reason for the termination, compensation through sever-
ance packages, and the workers’ rights to “consultation on measures to be taken to
avert or to minimise the terminations” (ILO, 1982). However, Cappelli (1999) argues
that the 1980s recession changed the broader labor market, with a new focus on share-
holder value rather than the previous paternalism toward employees, and employment
security was the casualty. Littler et al. (1997) agree that the 1980s saw a new approach
to downsizing and redundancy, from a primarily economic response to use as a man-
agement tool to shape organizations in the face of technological and other workplace
changes.
Public Management Reforms and Their Effect on Employment Security
The public service bargain, while intended to protect public servants from the political
environment, was also affected by the political environment. This environment has
included extensive public management reform in recent decades. While the reforms
vary across countries in regard to extent and timing, the goals are largely similar and
Colley
611
include the following: savings, efficiency, effectiveness, removing any differences
between the public and private sector, plus the legitimacy benefits of governments
being seen to be modernizing and streamlining their public services (Bach & Bordogna,
2011; Pollitt & Bouckaert, 2011, pp. 6-7). Pollitt and Bouckaert (2011) note that the
reforms can be portrayed as a panacea but often deliver less than the claimed benefits
and indeed sometimes have perverse effects that render processes worse than before.
Condrey and Battaglio (2007) highlight studies where scholars have questioned the
effects of reform on democratic accountability.
These rounds of public management and industrial...
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