scholarly journals Divergent Paths: Civil Service Employment Relations in Australia and Canada

2005 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 566-576 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael A. Gurdon

This article describes the legislated strengthening of employee involvement in decision-making within the federal civil service in Australia. While the quite distinct differences between the two industrial relations Systems must be recognized, particularly the resulting distribution of power between the government as employer and its employees, aspects of the general philosophy underlying the Australian model may find some useful applications as the Canadian public sector Systems continues to evolve.

2007 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 631-652 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Stoleroff

Since the onset of the public deficit crisis in 2001–2002, three successive Portuguese governments have promoted a transformation of public sector employment relations with the aim of bringing them into line with the private sector. Given the importance both of employment in the public sector and of public sector unions to the overall labour movement, the outcome of these reforms will have a decisive impact upon industrial relations in Portugal. The Portuguese public sector unions have consistently claimed that the government has presented them with preconceived reform packages, has not bargained and has in fact imposed its concept of the reforms. This article analyses the relationship between the government and the unions in negotiating the reforms, focusing on the degree of conflict involved and the extent to which the reforms have proceeded within the framework of social dialogue.


1981 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 309-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Micheline Plasse

This article first presents a brief survey of the role and functions filled by the personal aide (chef de cabinet) of a minister in Quebec. The analysis continues, in a comparative perspective, by tracing a sociological and professional portrait of the Liberal“chefs de cabinet” in April 1976 and their successors in the pequiste government in July 1977.We then test the hypothesis that the cleavage between the government and the dominant economic forces has increased since November 15, 1976 as a result of the ideology articulated by the“chefs de cabinet” regarding the social and economic aims of the state. This hypothesis was confirmed.The hypothesis that the pequiste“chefs de cabinet” exercise a more pronounced influence on the decision-making process is also confirmed. Nevertheless, one cannot argue that the pequiste“chefs de cabinet” usurped the power of the legislators; their influence is more political than technocratic. The growing influence of the pequiste“chefs de cabinet” neverthelsss helps to accentuate the tensions and conflicts between the higher civil service and the ministerial aides.


Author(s):  
Fardaus Ara

This paper discusses the status of women in leadership position in the Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) following content analysis. This study argues that although the number of women in the class I position in the civil service has increased, their position in terms of power and influence on decision-making is still insignificant. In particular, the number of women in the leadership position in the civil service does not reflect gender parity that the government of Bangladesh is committed to achieve.


1994 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Thornthwaite

While conciliation and arbitration tribunals have been at the forefront of Austral ian research on industrial relations institutions, numerous specialist tribunals enforcing individual workers' rights in employment have been virtually hidden from view. This paper examines the role of two such tribunals in New South Wales, the Government and Related Employees' Appeal Tribunal and the Equal Opportu nity Tribunal. It argues that although their most direct and public role is to resolve individuals' grievances, equally significant is the contribution of these agencies to the detailed regulation of employment relations and hence the increasing sophisti cation of labour management in public sector organizations since the late 1970s, and the institutionalization of management prerogatives and conflicts over an increasingly wide range of employment decisions.


2005 ◽  
Vol 68 ◽  
pp. 144-146
Author(s):  
Colin J. Davis

In this autobiographical account of labor relations on the Montreal waterfront, Alexander C. Pathy gives an insider account of the volatile relationship between shippers and longshoremen. Pathy worked as a lawyer and then official of the influential Maritime Employers Association (MEA). The MEA was in the forefront in changing employment relations to better fit the introduction of technological changes brought on by containerization. As in most ports around the world, the introduction of containerization was riven with challenge and controversy. The Port of Montreal, and the lesser ports of Quebec City and Trois-Rivieres, shared this common experience. According to Pathy up to 1960 the respective ports had seen little strife. Indeed, it would seem that the relations between the two sides had been relatively amicable. This would change once ship owners and stevedores embarked on a rationalization scheme to make the loading and unloading of cargo that much more efficient and speedier. Beginning in 1960, negotiations became increasingly heated and hostile. Not least was the problem of language. In what could be best described as mutual ignorance the employers negotiated in English, while the union representatives, reflecting the membership, spoke in French. It was no wonder that misunderstandings could occur because of poor translation. But according to Pathy more than language, the principal point of conflict was perception. Each side brought to the table mutual suspicion and hostility. The problem Pathy contends was, “Each party did not see its glass half full but half empty.”(40) Therefore, negotiations over gang size, technological improvements, hiring methods, and union jurisdiction all became major issues of contention. Adding to the complexity of the situation was the role of Canadian government. Canadian industrial relations law gave the government a vital stake in the negotiations. Just as important, as both official and wildcat strikes broke out, the government scrambled to stabilize the situation as ships were diverted to US ports. The loss of trade and thereby revenue was seen as a critical impairment to the maritime economy.


2003 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valeria Pulignano

This paper argues that the Berlusconi government is seeking to replace the ‘social concertation’ arrangement between government and trade unions with ‘social dialogue’ in an effort to undermine trade union ‘power’. This endeavour by the government to impose a policy of ‘social dialogue’ would severely limit trade unions' influence in economic and social policy decision-making and leave Berlusconi free to introduce reforms favouring his friends in employer organisations. One likely outcome would be the deregulation of the Italian labour market strongly damaging workers' rights.


Author(s):  
Arla Juntunen

The high level objectives of public authorities are to create value at minimal cost, and achieve ongoing support and commitment from its funding authority. Similar to the private sector, today’s government agencies face a rapidly changing operating environment and many challenges. Where public organizations differ is that they need to manage this environment while answering to demands for increased service, reduced costs, fewer resources and at the same time increased efficiency and accountability. Public organization must cope with changing expectations of multiple contact groups, emerging regulation, changes in politics, decentralization of organization, and centralization of certain functions providing similar services, and growing demand for better accountability. The aim of public management is to create public value. Public sector managers create value through their organization’s performance and demonstrated accomplishments. The public value is difficult to define: it is something that exists within each community. It is created and affected by the citizens, businesses and organizations of that community (cf. also Moore, 1995). This increased interest to questions of value is partly due to the adoption of values and value-related concepts taken from business, like value creation and added value. It is argued that the public sector adopts business-like techniques to increase efficiency (Khademian, 1995; cf. Turban et al. 2007; Chen et al. 2005). In addition, there is a growing concern to the non-tangible, political, and ethical aspects of the public sector governance and actions (See Berg, 2001) Decision making that turns the resources in to public value is a daily challenge in the government (Khademian, 1999; Flynn, 2007) and not only because of the social or political factors. Most of decision problems are no longer well-structured problems that are easy to be solved by experience. Even problems that used to be fairly simple to define and solve are now much more complex because of the globalization of the economy, and rapid pace of changes in the technology and political and social environment. Therefore, modern decision makers often need to integrate quickly and reliably knowledge from different areas of data sources to use it in their decision making process. Moreover, the tools and applications developed for knowledge representations in key application areas are extremely diversified, therefore knowledge and data modeling and integration is important (See also the decision support systems (DSS) modeling methods and paradigms: Ruan et al., 2001; Carlsson & Fuller, 2002; Fink, 2002; Makowski & Wierzbicki, 2003). The application s of real-world problems and the abundance of different software tools allow to integrate several methods, specifications and analysis and to apply them to new, arising, complex problems.


Author(s):  
Sherif Kamel

This case focuses on the use of crisis management support systems in Egypt in leveraging the decision-making process in the government and the public sector for socioeconomic development. It describes the experience of the Egyptian public sector in socioeconomic decision-making and the related emergence of an information-based support organization for the government “Information and Decision Support Center”. The case reflects on the type of decision-making and the crisis management mode of operation at the top policy level and the needs and requirements in terms of resources and infrastructure to support the decision-making process. The case addresses the basics and concepts of crisis management support systems in the context of a developing country, Egypt, stemming from the experience of the Information and Decision Support Center from 1985 to date, the growing implications of the information and communication technology evolution and the lessons learned in responding to crisis management situations in supporting decision and strategic issues at the government and the public sector. The essence of the case is to address the use of advanced information systems in responding to socioeconomic development needs. The case demonstrates the use of management and decision support systems in a crisis mode that has had a number of successes over the last decade that implied concrete results within the developmental process that Egypt, a developing country, is realizing.


2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Saikou Conteh ◽  
Hamidah Hamidah

Public sector changes in Gambia started within the 1980s with the essential objective of moving forward the adequacy, effectiveness, and straightforwardness of governmental operational and financial administration. This paper was executed by adopting qualitative research method to obtain it findings. This paper points to look at the opportunities and accountability by the Gambian public sector in executing accrual-based accounting. A survey of past writing in this range appeared that accrual-based accounting improves decision-making processes, advances way better financial administration, and enhances public accountability. Be that as it may, the move handle between these two accounting strategies isn't without challenges. Human resources competency, software and technology capability, accounting policies, and measures appropriateness are recognized as major challenges within the usage effort. These challenges should be taken into thought carefully by the government in order to guarantee effective movement towards accrual-based accounting.


2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 682-699 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikkel Mailand

Public sector industrial relations in Denmark are normally perceived as relatively consensual, and as a ‘model employer’ country with a strong collective bargaining tradition it is one of the countries where unilateral regulation could be least expected. However, in 2013, a lockout without any prior strike or strike-warning in the bargaining area for primary and lower secondary education only, came to an end through legislative intervention. The article includes three main arguments. First, the government and the public employers took these drastic steps because various factors created a rare ‘window of opportunity’ for them. Second, the reason a Norwegian industrial conflict in 2014 with a very similar point of departure ended very differently was first and foremost that the Norwegian process was not embedded in politics and policy reform to the same extent as the Danish process. Third, the Danish case shows that Denmark might not have escaped the trend towards unilateralism seen across Europe.


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