Militant Public Service Trade Unionism in a New State: The Case of Ceylon

1966 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 397-412
Author(s):  
Robert N. Kearney

Rapid growth in the size and militancy of trade union movements has been a common development in the newly independent states of Asia since the end of colonial rule less than two decades ago. In these states, and in the more recently independent African states as well, government employees frequently constitute one of the principal groups of organized workers. Public servants' right of association and right to strike or demonstrate have been among the insistent questions confronting the governments of the new states.In the areas of Asia formerly under British rule, public servants enjoy the right to form trade unions with some restrictions and, except in Pakistan, trade unionism in the public service has expanded considerably. In India, government employees other than industrial workers are allowed to organize subject to restrictions limiting membership or leadership in their trade unions to public servants and prohibiting political activity by the unions.

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiemeka Onyema

The goal of berthing Nigeria’s full-scale industrial revolution is yet to be achieved. All the industrial development plans have so far failed to accelerate the nation’s industrialization, hence the country’s low industrial base which has kept her in the league of developing nations. In fact, Nigeria has in recent times been experiencing deindustrialization, as several industries have collapsed and some others, such as Unilever and Michelin, have relocated to other countries. Several factors are responsible for Nigeria’s low industrial development and they include: inadequate infrastructure (particularly, energy), poor technological base, multiple taxes and levies, and, the shortage and high cost of foreign exchange. Despite a growing body of literature on industrialization in Nigeria, not much has been written about the link between Public Service Reforms and industrialization in Nigeria. This paper examines the links between the implementation of the Service Compact (SERVICOM) Charter and the achievement of Nigeria’s industrial development policies, especially the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ Policy. The paper makes the case that the goal of industrializing Nigeria will not be fully realised without an efficient Public Service. Furthermore, the paper highlights the need for Nigerian public servants to have the right work attitude, and to be morally upright and patriotic, in order to create a business-friendly environment and to build investor confidence, so as to facilitate and accelerate the country’s industrialization and overall national development. The author recommends that the Nigerian government should strengthen the implementation of the Servicom Charter and also incorporate the Charter into the industrialization plan.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 53-72
Author(s):  
Anna Delius

This article explores how repression and everyday conflicts at the workplace were connected with labor rights and trade unionism in two authoritarian regimes. It focuses on worker and labor activists’ media in Francoist Spain and in state socialist Poland during the years 1965–68 and 1977–79, respectively. Spanish and Polish workers both lacked the right to join and form independent trade unions, the right to free assembly and association, and the right to strike. At the same time, they faced comparable problems in their everyday working lives, including low salaries, excessive overtime, incompetent management, and deficits in safety and hygiene standards. In this context, (illegal) magazines for workers emerged. They provided new arenas for exchanging experiences, advertised strike actions all across the country, called for united action, and explained national legislation and global labor norms. Based on an analysis of Spanish and Polish workers’ publications, this contribution investigates how labor activists in these states addressed day-to-day problems and the constant violations of internationally binding labor norms.


1970 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rick Snell

I have used a proposition developed in Kerry Howe's seminal work Where the Waves Fall (1984) to offer an explanatory framework for understanding industrial relations in the South Pacific. The paper concentrates on applying this analysis to a key moment in Western Samoan industrial relations, the 1981 public service strike. The key concept used in this analysis is mutual adjustment. The concept refers to an interactive process between foreign institutions, such as trade unions, and pre-existing institutions and values like fa' a Samoa (the cultural and political value system of Western Samoa). While the 1981 strike, and South Pacific industrial relations in general, can be interpreted from a nwnber of pespectives rhe approach used in this paper may offer a method that does not obscure the full interplay between Western values and institutions and local forces.


2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-42
Author(s):  
Kim Yunho ◽  
Jung Yunjin ◽  
Seoh Dongwook ◽  
Im Tobin

Organizational reforms that employees do not voluntary accept are likely to negatively affect organizational effectiveness in the long term. We conducted an empirical analysis with survey data by reviewing related studies on public service motivation (PSM) and acceptance of organizational changes, the goal being to verify the relationship between government employees’ PSMand their acceptance of public sector pension reform in Korea. Results show that public servants highly driven by PSM are willing to accept this pension reform even though it reduces their own benefits. This study is distinguished from existing literature of PSM and responses to organizational changes because it reduces the possibility of endogeneity problems.


2003 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 702-721 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Foster ◽  
Peter Scott

This article considers the attitudes to the single currency of public service trade unions, illustrating this through a number of nationally based case studies. We examine claims about the impact of EMU on welfare states and public expenditure, and particularly the extent to which the governance of EMU attests a ‘neoliberal', marketising approach towards the public sphere. We find that any such tendency has been offset by the recent resurgence of forms of national-level bipartite or tripartite economic and social coordination, managing the effects of EMU through social dialogue. The subsequent section of the paper develops a categorisation of four main trends evident in European public service trade unions'response to the single currency: enthusiasm, altruism, scepticism and resistance. The dominant attitude to date has been acceptance. We highlight dangers for democratic legitimacy within public sector unions in cases where leadership support for EMU has exceeded that of the membership, and indicate some potential areas for future public service union influence in the EMU.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-121
Author(s):  
Mila Rosmaya

A change is something obsolute and mandatory. People also do change. In the context of a public  service the people are categoried into demanders and suppliers (providers). Needs of the demander keep  changing. The changes happen to variant, quantity of the people’s needs as well as process of how they  expect to get their needs. To keep up with these changes and, moreover, to improve the quality of the  public service they supply to the demanders, the providers need to make some changes. The change that  should take at the first place is their competency. They should get competency development provided  by an orgnization where they belong to. Among many available alternatives of the competency  development methods, mentoring is something else. It involves the right person who shares expertise  and trains the competency needed by a trainee (mentee) because the person is the mentee’s supervisor  who can directly monitor and evaluate the progress of the mentoring. This method generates benefits  not only for the individuals involved but also the organization. For the organization the mentoring is  both efficient and effective. It costs almost zero budget. Despite the obstacles that may occur the  mentoring is a bull’s eye.  


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (10) ◽  
pp. 823-831
Author(s):  
Chiemeka Onyema

The goal of berthing Nigeria's full-scale industrial revolution is yet to be achieved. All the industrial development plans have so far failed to accelerate the nation's industrialization, hence the country's low industrial base which has kept her in the league of developing nations. In fact, Nigeria has in recent times been experiencing deindustrialization, as several industries have collapsed and some others, such as Unilever and Michelin, have relocated to other countries. Several factors are responsible for Nigeria's low industrial development and they include: inadequate infrastructure (particularly, energy), poor technological base, multiple taxes and levies, and, the shortage and high cost of foreign exchange. Despite a growing body of literature on industrialization in Nigeria, not much has been written about the link between Public Service Reforms and industrialization in Nigeria. This paper examines the link between the implementation of Service Compact (Servicom) Charter and the achievement of Nigeria's industrial development policies, especially the 'Ease of Doing Business' Policy. The paper makes the case that the goal of industrializing Nigeria will not be possible without an efficient Public Service. Furthermore, the paper highlights the need for Nigerian public servants to have the right work attitude, and to be morally upright and patriotic, in order to create a business-friendly environment and to build investor confidence, so as to facilitate and accelerate the country's industrialization and overall national development. The author recommends that the Nigerian government should strengthen the implementation of the Servicom charter and also incorporate the charter into the industrialization plan.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah Cameron

The New Zealand public service faced an unprecedented challenge in 2020. The focus of this article is on what the Covid-19 experience can tell us about the strengths of the public service, and whether the course that we have set for the future, enshrined through the Public Service Act 2020, is the right one. The established directions of public service change helped the Covid response: functional leadership made a definite contribution; dispersed leadership roles proved their worth; the deepening experience of inter-agency collaboration over the past decade cannot be proved to have contributed, but it seems reasonable to conclude that it did. Public servants proved willing to behave as participants in a single service rather than employees of a single agency, living up to the more complete view of human motivation reflected in the Public Service Act. The article concludes with some observations on the importance of interoperability for the future public service, and on the implications the strong Mäori response to Covid-19 may have for the public service of the future.


Author(s):  
Chris Pierson

This chapter argues that the starkest of the institutional problems facing social democracy now is a growing inability to win elections. Added to this was the challenge of a long-term decline in the industrial wing of social democracy. Historically, social democracy has been the politics of the labour movement, and a key component of this movement has always been trade unions and their members. While that relationship was not always as close as it was in the British or Swedish cases, trade unionism was almost always the ‘other half’ of social democracy. However, the 1980s were a time of loss for this ‘other side’ of social democracy. Trade unions were becoming increasingly feminised, more focused in the public sector and drawing in increasing numbers of middle-class public service members.


2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-110
Author(s):  
Paul Smith

Bill Wedderburn (1927-2012) - from 1977, Lord Wedderburn of Charlton - was a towering figure in the world of labour law. His commitment to trade-unionism and the right of workers to take industrial action, given the asymmetrical nature of the employment relationship, ran deep, pervading every aspect of his forensic, sometimes biting, analysis of labour law and the role of the common law. Prompted by the Rookes decision in the High Court, 1961, and the subsequent decision of the House of Lords Judicial Committee, 1964, Wedderburn launched a wide-ranging defence - academic and public - of trade unions’ freedom to strike and the Trade Disputes Act (TDA) 1906. He argued that the House of Lords’ decision had created a new common law liability which evaded the protections in the TDA 1906. This was neutralized by the Trade Disputes Act 1965, but a new wider version of the TDA had to wait for the passage of the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act, as amended in 1976.


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