Monographic collection of essays on civil service and public service employment and wages in Canada - covers growth in number of civil servants, and public servants, wage determination, wage differentials, fringe benefits, etc. In the public sector at both national level and local level. Bibliography pp. 186 to 188, references and statistical tables.
Government compensation and employment policies are important for the efficient delivery of public services which are crucial for the functioning of economies and the general prosperity of societies. On average, spending on the wage bill absorbs around one-fifth of total spending. Cross-country variation in wage spending reflects, in part, national choices about the government’s role in priority sectors, as well as variations in the level of economic development and resource constraints.
This paper compiles and compares recent and past measures introduced to contain the public wage bill in a number of emerging and advanced economies to assess their effectiveness in bringing down expenditure in a sustained way. In the aftermath of the Great Recession a number of countries have approved measures on the wage bill as part of fiscal consolidation efforts. These recent episodes are compared to past cases implemented in advanced economies over the period 1979–2009. Findings suggest that public wage bill consolidation episodes pre and post 2009 are similar in many respects. Moreover, typically countries that were able to achieve more sustained reductions in the wage bill have implemented to larger extent structural measures, and/or these measures were accompanied with substantial social dialogue and consensus.
Representing the most extensive research on public employment, these two volumes explore the radical changes that have taken place in the configuration of national public services due to a general expansion of public employment that was followed by stagnation and decreases. Part-time employment and the involvement of women also increased as a component of the public sector and were linked to the most important growth areas such as the educational, health care and personal social services sectors. The two volumes that make up this study shed important insight on these changes. Volume 1 offers a unique internationally comparative multi-dimensional analysis of ten public service systems belonging to different families of major advanced western countries. It contains the most comprehensive and comparable quantitative analyses available anywhere of ten public service systems; Britain, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the US, Germany, Spain, France, Denmark and Sweden. Volume 2 is a comprehensive analysis of the ten public service systems, with in-depth comparisons of the systems along eight dimensions including central-regional-local government employment proportions and the change of the services since the 1950s with respect to social composition (gender, minorities, elites, career groups). Scholars and professionals in the fields of public administration, politics and economics will find this two-volume compendium informative and practical.
From the back cover: Canada can compete in international markets, but not, the authors contend, under the present national economic strategy. Policies that redistribute income and allocate resources through government fiat have weakended Canada's ability to transform its manufacturing sector to meet the new competititve challenges. D'Cruz and Fleck compare the performance of seventy-one Canadian industries from 1967 to 1981 with industries in Japan, the United States, Britain and France. To enhance the competitiveness of Canadian manufacturing, the authors propose a differential industrial strategy, one that emphasizes growth and development. Government, they say, must play a "hands-off" role in Canada's market economy, limiting itself to establishing the rules of the game. The authors recommend, in addition, macro-economic policies that would reduce the federal deficit, restrain wages for public servants, preserve low differentials between Canadian and American interest rates, and maintain the Canadian dollar at 70 cents U.S.
Study of collective bargaining in the public service in Canada - comments on the 1967 Public Service Staff Relations Act (labour legislation) determining most terms and conditions of employment for federal public servants; explains the scope of bargaining, the role of conciliation and arbitration in resolving bargaining impasses, and the nature of strikes, lockouts, sanctions, redress of grievances, etc.; discusses problems in adapting to certain provisions; recommends amendments.
How many people are employed by the government? How many are employed by the central government compared with the state and local authorities? How many are employed in public enterprise? How much are they all paid? How much are they paid relative to each other, or relative to the private sector? Such questions interest people in general and economists and policymakers in particular; yet it is remarkable how little information is readily accessible on thes topics.
