Europe’s economic crisis: EUROFOUND reviews impacts of public sector restructuring

Reviewing the impacts of Europe’s recent economic crisis on employment in the public sectors in the EU-28 in great detail, the report by EUROFOUND, published in the framework of its European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)*, supports the thesis that the public sectors in Europe were, overall, severely and negatively affected by the recent crisis. For example, it shows that since the start of the crisis in 2008:

• 800,000 jobs (net) have been lost in the EU in the core public sector (public administration) – which has contracted quicker than the overall workforce during that time;
• pay freezes or cuts for public sector workers have been a wide-spread practice in numerous Member States;
• restructuring in the public sectors has, generally, led to a further increase in the prevalence of psychosocial health problems among the workers concerned.

Most importantly, the report found strong evidence that restructuring the public sectors was in many cases “not well prepared” but “carried out in hasty manner” with only “limited” consultation with the social partners.

Please follow this link to if you are interested in reading the full publication. The report will also be presented by EUROFOUND in the context of a CESI symposium in Dublin on June 25-26 2015 on ‘Better anticipate changes and restructuring in public administrations in Europe: the role played by the information and consultation of employees’.

* The European Restructuring monitor (ERM) is EUROFOUND’s publication and information dissemination tool for its analyses on changes in employment generally and restructuring in particular.