Some Observations on Public Employment in Europe

Abstract

Within a general European trend, the legal regime governing public employees is changing dramatically both in Spain and Portugal. In both countries, restrictions have been placed on the role of collective bargaining. All the advantages achieved through this mechanism have disappeared and its importance within public employment has been reduced to a minimum. The second major point in common is the reduction in wages, more heavily contested in Portugal than in Spain. The trend in both countries is the assimilation of the previously privileged regime of public employees to that of private sector workers.