Post‐privatisation industrial relations in the UK rail and electricity industries

Commercial firms in industries once under public ownership generally have well‐organised trade unions with significant disruptive capacity, yet overt confict is often low despite major change. This paper examines the experience of two major rail and energy companies after privatisation. The results demonstrate the importance of sectoral characteristics, and the form of privatisation itself, in shaping industrial relations. The exercise of strategic choice at firm level also undermines any general industrial relations ‘theory of privatisation’.     

PRIVATISATION O F ENERGY: WAS IT NECESSARY?

The economic circumstances of the time produced a favourable climate for energy privatisation. Significant economic benefits flowed from this. Nevertheless, determining the most appropriate approach to privatisation and the structure of regulation after privatisation are not straightforward and depend on technological and economic factors.     

Privatisation of the Royal Mail: Third Time Lucky?

The Conservatives privatised most of the UK's state‐owned industries during the 1980s and 1990s, but the Royal Mail remained under public ownership. It was privatised through a public flotation in early October 2013 when around 70 per cent of the company's shares were sold by the government. This paper looks at the reasons why the enterprise was not sold earlier. It especially focuses on the failed attempt to privatise it in 1993/4, although other occasions when privatisation was contemplated are mentioned. The discussion draws on government papers that are closed to the public under the 30‐year rule but to which the author had access as the UK government's Official Historian of Privatisation. The study demonstrates that in the past a combination of lukewarm support for privatisation at the prime ministerial level, concerns about the political consequences (including a possible revolt in Parliament), and trade union opposition proved decisive in preventing privatisation of the Royal Mail.     

Public sector restructuring and the re‐regulation of industrial relations: the three‐decade project of privatisation,liberalisation and marketisation in Royal Mail

The British postal service, Royal Mail, was privatised in 2013, following failed attempts at divestiture in 1994 and 2009. This article analyses processes of marketisation, liberalisation and privatisation, highlighting how strong workplace‐centred union presence allowed for considerable influence and bargaining gains within such highly sensitive political projects of restructuring.     

The trade union campaign against water privatisation

Here the author maintains that union campaigns against privatisation should not be judged in terms of their inability to prevent privatisation taking place. In this context, he assesses the effectiveness of the trade union campaign against water privatisation, concluding that it will make future privatisation initiatives more difficult to carry through.     

On the speed and boundaries of structural adjustment when fiscal policy is tight

Governments of transition economies are subject to fiscal constraints (e.g. credit constraints). However, exaggerated fiscal discipline might feed into the structural adjustment process. The government designs and times the privatisation programme, yet may find itself in a fiscal squeeze because restructuring moves costs from firms to the public budget. This paper models this problem in a simple dynamic set-up. Several distinct reform strategies, which differ in the speed and level of structural adjustment, are identified. Tight fiscal discipline in early stages of transition may delay or halt privatisation. A different sequencing of policy or different taxation, benefits, and privatisation sales rules, can rectify this problem.     

Post-privatised Shop Steward Organisation and Union Renewal at Girobank

Using an ethnographic case study approach this article provides empirical evidence concerning the response of local union stewards to managerial-led change during and after the process of privatisation. It is suggested that the key mediating factors of a decisive ideological purpose and local leadership style provide the ingredients for sustainable union renewal. Wider implications are noted, in particular a gap between national trade union policies and workplace industrial relations practices.     

How Special are the Railways?

What are the prospects for railway privatisation? John Hibbs, of Birmingham University, outlines some of the problems for what could be the last major privatisation before health and education.     

Monopoly Manacles the Capital Market

The 'political' purpose of privatisation has been said to be to raise finance to offset government borrowing and to facilitate tax reduction. Cento Veljanovski, of University College, London, argues that the essential aim is rather to change from state monopoly to private competition, butthat the maintenance of monopoly inhibits this market process.     

privatisation in eastern europe

What are the prospects for privatisation in Eastern Europe? Cento Veljanovski, director of Lexecon Ltd, outlines the difficulties in the way of privatisation. East European countries want capitalism without capital and capitalists.     

Technology transfer and the restructuring of science and technology in central and eastern Europe

Profound changes which have occurred in central and eastern Europe (CEE) have left science and technology systems in those countries in a dilapidated state. Reform efforts have focused on restructuring and privatising research institutes and promoting technology transfer between domestic institutions and between domestic and foreign institutions.¹ Both of these reform initiatives are aimed at increasing levels of innovation. Emphasis has been put on introducing the market mechanism. This paper looks at these reforms in CEE, particularly in Poland. The following broad points emerge: First, the track record of efforts to promote technology transfer need to be understood and interpreted in conjunction with a fuller understanding of institutional change, innovation and learning. Technology transfer is meant to encourage innovation, but a range of things need to happen if technology transfer initiatives are to work. Gibbons (Gibbons M. et al., 1994) observed, for example, that effective innovation requires new configurations of knowledge (and skills). The coordination activities required to effect these new configurations within and between organisations and institutions impose their own demands on actors engaged in technology transfer, which rapid privatisation or liberalisation policies in CEE do not begin to address. Reform policies which have focused on introducing new economic incentives need to address change at micro and meso levels. Creating new institutional practice depends not only on creating economic incentives but on wider reform processes, such as creating new organisational practices and encouraging the emergence of new sorts of institutions which can facilitate links. Second, the reform process is a social and political one. Changing the emphasis of policy towards technological development requires a change in power relations so that technological development and innovation, rather than success in science, are prioritised. These political battles greatly influence the pace and nature of change, and in CEE the promotion of technology and innovation is taking place in a context of social upheaval. Social consequences of reform in general and in science and technology in particular are difficult and uncomfortable, and change in this area is perhaps not yet a political priority in some CEE countries.     

privatisation coupon in Czechoslovakia

How is privatisation being carried out in Eastern Europe? Martin Summers, of the Institute of Economic Affairs, explains how the Czechoslovak government has set about privatisation by the use of coupons and we interview a former adviser to the Slovak prime minister.     

Comparing modes of privatisation: a study of the telecommunications sectors in Argentina and Mexico, 1990–2000

This article examines the variation in the post‐privatisation pattern of labour and employment relations in the telecommunications sectors of Argentina and Mexico. The findings suggest that the initial mode of privatisation—negotiated vs. imposed reform—shaped changes in employment, subcontracting and work rules in the period following privatisation. The research also suggests, however, that negotiated reform is more likely to emerge only when certain political incentives are present.     

British Telecom – Has Privatisation Delivered Competition?

What are the lessons for the privatisation of British Gas from previous flotations? Peter Curwen, Senior Lecturer in Economics at the Sheffield Polytechnic, charts the regulatory tangle in the telecommunications market and argues that privatisation on its own may not be enough to reduce the extent of regulation.     

the future for Privatising local government

While privatisation has been proceeding rapidly at Westminster, it has lagged behind in local government. Douglas Mason, inventor of the Community Charge, wants to speed up privatisation in the town halls.     

Privatisation,trade union strength and bargaining power in Nigeria's finance and petroleum sectors

This article compares the consequences of privatisation for collective bargaining, trade union membership size and bargaining power within two economic sectors. The results indicate that privatisation has significant impact on industrial relations, and that this impact is mediated by other factors, with variations within and between sectors.     

BRITAIN: Coal might still be saved

Could privatisation save the coal industry? Professor Colin Robinson, editorial director of the Institute of Economic Affairs, argues that privatisation and deregulation might save much of the remaining coal industry.     

基于模块化理论的柔性流程及其影响因素的实证研究

模块化系统理论指出模块化设计能够提高系统的柔性。模块化程度高的业务流程具有“封装”和“即插即拔”的特性,使得业务流程更具有柔性,可快速的相应环境的变化。本文在模块化系统理论和交易成本经济学的基础上提出了模块化业务流程影响因素模型和相关假设,顾客需求的多样性、供应商专业化程度将促成流程的模块化设计,流程的实物资产专用性、人力资产专用性、程序资产专用性将减少流程模块化设计的吸引力。实证结果支持了这些研究假设。     

Decline and fall: national bargaining in British water

This article examines the break-up of national bargaining in the water industry following the privatisation of the ten Regional Water Authorities in the autumn of 1989. The author argues that the changes in bargaining structure were the result of a complex range of factors, and not simply the result of privatisation.