The impact of public services outsourcing on work and employment conditions in different national regimes

This article examines the impact of outsourcing of public services on employment relations and working conditions in three countries: Italy, the United Kingdom and Denmark. It presents six matched case studies and investigates whether contracting out by public administrations causes a market-driven convergence across national boundaries or whether cross-country differences endure. Although outsourcing blurs the organizational boundaries between public and private sectors everywhere, making terms and conditions of employment fragmented and less protected, distinct structures and legacies of national employment relations institutions result in differences between national trajectories.