Wandel von Beschäftigung und Arbeitsbeziehungen im öffentlichen Dienst in Deutschland – zur Erosion einer sozialstaatlichen Vorbildrolle

Over the past years, the state has increasingly abandoned its role as ‘model employer’ which had emerged in the ‘golden age of the welfare state’. Triggered by efficiency-oriented re-regulation and political decentralization, labour and employment conditions in the Ger-man public sector are increasingly converging towards the private sector. This is accompa-nied by a fragmentation of the employment structure in the public services that goes beyond the traditional segmentation into two status groups. At the same time, the formerly coopera-tive and consensual labour relations are becoming more heterogeneous and conflictual. In this process, the article argues, labour unions and professional associations – as political actors – are changing their political strategies regarding labour and employment relations and try to occupy new territories on the company, political and public level.