PRIVATIZATION, CONTRACTING-OUT AND PUBLIC SECTOR INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS: THE THATCHER YEARS IN BRITAIN

P. B. BEAUMONT

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DOI: 10.2190/KWK6-TUJQ-R3CR-GHGX

Abstract

This article examines the nature of the Thatcher Government's program of privatization and contracting out in Britain during the course of the 1980s. The major points to emerge are that privatization has substantially reduced the size of public sector employment, particularly in the nationalized industries; there has been considerable debate about the nature of industrial relations changes in the privatized corporations; and the in-house success rate in competitive tendering has been relatively high in both the health service and local government. However, whether the latter result will hold through time is problematic.

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