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Job Insecurity in the New Model of Public Employment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Marc Robinson
Marc Robinson*
Affiliation:
School of Economics and Finance, Queensland University of Technology
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Abstract

Since the late eighties, a new model of public sector employment has swept a number of the States in Australia, initially at the senior executive level and now increasingly at non-executive level. This model of ‘contract’ employment is one in which employees may be terminated at short notice, for no reason, and with very limited termination compensation. This paper analyses the consequences of this new model and, specifically, of dramatically increased exposure to the risk of arbitrary termination or termination flowing from the impact of an ‘exogenous’ financial or policy shock upon Government. It also reflects on the prospects for the construction of a new ‘implicit contract’ which might mitigate the adverse consequences of the new model by facilitating the re-establishment of trust in the public sector employment relationship.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , December 1996 , pp. 262 - 284
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 1996

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Footnotes

*

The author would like to record his gratitute to the anonymous referees for their valuable comments. The usual caveats apply.

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