Quality of Life and Public Management: Redefining Development in the Local Environment

As we humans exploit nature to meet present needs, are we destroying resources needed for the future? In the past decade in every environmental sector, conditions have either failed to improve, or they are worsening:. The supply of freshwater is finite, but demand is soaring as population grows and use per capita rises. By , when world population is projected to be 8 billion, 48 countries containing 3 billion people will face shortages.

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Half of all coastal ecosystems are pressured by high population densities and urban development. Ocean fisheries are being overexploited, and fish catches are down. Yet human activities are pushing many thousands of plant and animal species into extinction. Two of every three species is estimated to be in decline.

If the global temperature rises as projected, sea levels would rise by several meters, causing widespread flooding. Global warming also could cause droughts and disrupt agriculture. How people preserve or abuse the environment could largely determine whether living standards improve or deteriorate. Growing human numbers, urban expansion, and resource exploitation do not bode well for the future. Without practicing sustainable development, humanity faces a deteriorating environment and may even invite ecological disaster. Environmentalists and economists increasingly agree that efforts to protect the environment and to achieve better living standards can be closely linked and are mutually reinforcing.

Slowing the increase in population, especially in the face of rising per capita demand for natural resources, can take pressure off the environment and buy time to improve living standards on a sustainable basis. If every country made a commitment to population stabilization and resource conservation, the world would be better able to meet the challenges of sustainable development.

Practicing sustainable development requires a combination of wise public investment, effective natural resource management, cleaner agricultural and industrial technologies, less pollution, and slower population growth. Just when it stabilizes and thus the level at which it stabilizes will have a powerful effect on living standards and the global environment. As population size continues to reach levels never before experienced, and per capita consumption rises, the environment hangs in the balance.

New York was the only city with a population of more than 10 million in ; By it is estimated there will be 21 cities in this category. Also, most urban population growth will likely occur in developing countries, which are not equipped to deal with the need for more transportation, housing, water, and sewers. Such magnitude of urban population increase is unprecedented in human history.

Also on our site, Niles Eldredge explains why we are in the middle of an extinction event. This site is based on the Bureau of Census data on Urbanized Areas. News, action alerts, population facts. Find data on reproductive rights, violence, and health. Zero waste is the recycling of all materials back into nature or the marketplace in a manner that protects human health and the environment. A web site dedicated to population, health, and environment connections in different regions of the world. It can be downloaded as a PDF file. How much do you know about world population?

Challenges for the 21st Century by L. Bertrand Seven Locks Press, examines patterns of demographic behavior and then looks at their potential impact on human societies in the 21st Century. NumbersUSA provides an interactive USA map — click on a state and view the population issue record of your congressmember. Follow directions to send email to Congress with your views.

In Germany, since , modernisation of public administration has ranked high on the agenda of the coalition government in German. Some reports suggest that the reforms are continuing; a study produced by the Federal Ministry of the Interior in German, 3. In Hungary, the Magyary Development Programme In Italy, several structural reforms underpinned by law in in Italian and in in Italian, KB PDF have tried to introduce stricter regulations on absenteeism and also new human resource management techniques, including the introduction of pay schemes related to individual performance, not collective as before.

The Government of Luxembourg has tried, in the last few years, to reform and modernise its own structure, and that of the government and central public administration in French , with an eye to quality, efficiency and transparency. For instance, the Luxembourg Government Programme — in French stresses the need to change the way the civil service works and how civil servants are paid, with increasing attention paid to recognition of experience, life-long education and the assumption of responsibility.

In Malta, the Public Administration Act It also introduces several mechanisms intended to ensure fairness and meritocracy in appointments in government agencies. In Poland, the most important recent structural reform refers to the civil service act Majcherkiewicz, , which reintroduced the highest administrative positions in the civil service, abolished by the previous government between — in order to make managerial positions within public administration more flexible and prone to political intervention.

The Act also introduced several changes in working conditions in the civil service corps that will be explained in further sections of this report. In Portugal, several structural reforms to the public employment regime were made between —, to make it more efficient and citizen-oriented, as well as more cost-effective. Examples include changes related to the mobility of public employees, plus a new:. There are also new procedures relating to the recruitment of staff, including those in top management positions. Some reforms are also aimed at trying to reduce the amount of activities duplicated by national, regional and local entities.

The government wants to implement changes that will lead to total parity between public and private employees with some exceptions for particular groups of public workers such as those in the police, defence, and judiciary. In Sweden, the last 15 years have witnessed several reforms intended to increase efficiency and reduce CPA costs. The most important one refers towards a trend of unification of regional authorities, with previously independent parts now concentrated in one national authority.

In June , the National Authority Service Centre was established, to perform administrative work and standardise it while creating economies of scale and allowing the different authorities to focus on their core business. In the UK, changes within the public sector reflect political intent to reduce its size as part of structural changes in the economy. This trend stems from a belief that the private sector is better placed to provide cost effective services than the public sector and an underlying belief in the efficiency of the free market to offer tax-payers the best value for money.

Two major reports were released in which have helped to shape the way in which public sector conditions of service have changed. The Gershon Review identified savings that were required to move resources from back office services to the front of house, and other efficiency savings. The Lyons Relocation Review identified how moving the work of some London-based departments to the regions could deliver cost savings. As a result, there has been an increasing trend of decentralisation, as well as increased reliance on private and voluntary sector organisations to provide state-funded services.

It can be seen that many countries launched these processes well before the economic crisis of ; some in the late 90s and early s as in the case of Belgium, Bulgaria or Sweden but most since the mids such as the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Poland, Portugal or the UK. The financial crisis has raised great concerns in most European public authorities about excessive public debt levels, which have prompted many Member States to implement austerity measures to try to reduce public expenditure and budgetary deficits.

Examples of these measures include:. In spite of the previous differences in the way CPA is defined and understood across Europe, in general, the types of employment relationships pertinent to the diverse administrative levels central-federal-national or regional-local largely coincide, even if disparities can then be found in the specific collective agreements or working conditions which apply to each administrative body.

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In most countries, CPA workers and public workers in general can have one of two types of status:. According to data provided by national contributions to this CAR, it can be estimated that, in the EU 27 and Norway, there are approximately 9. It is nevertheless important to acknowledge that these figures have to be interpreted in context. As several studies show, the share of public sector workers, and therefore those in CPA, in total employment, varies significantly across countries.

In most countries, CPA employment has experienced a remarkable downward trend in the last five to seven years, and this has become particularly noticeable since the economic crisis see below. Trends have to be carefully read, however, as according to the available data, the number of CPA workers has increased in nine Member States since , and fallen in Available data also show that the importance of workers in CPA workers, in relation to those in public administration as a whole, varies considerably from country to country, and is obviously related to whether the government has a federal, semi-decentralised, or centralised structure.

However, a trend to reduce their numbers can be identified at least in nine out of the 15 countries with information available. In 11 out of the 21 countries where information is available, female CPA employment has increased in the last five to seven years, although it has decreased in the remaining countries. General State Administration not including police services, armed force, justice administration, public enterprises. Total public administration workers data are based on the public administration act definition thus including, ministries and departments, and the agencies, government entities, commissions and boards.

Employment related to civil servants refers to workers with permanent employment status. Restrictive recruitment policy of civil-servant status workers, especially in administrative posts for which employment on the basis of private-law contracts is a possible alternative. Federal coalition agreement to reduce total central public employment by 4, full time equivalents in the next two years Belgian Government, Several staff cost-saving measures in the CPA, including that of replacing only one in three public workers who leave.

Initiatives to save costs in the CPA , including downsizing in several ministries, boards and agencies Finansministeriet, Transfer of personnel across the whole public sector has been facilitated in order to cover the changing needs of services. Freezing of external recruitment in the public sector; most civil servants have become public workers with open-ended contracts. From , people in to , people two years later Insse, Increasing reliance on models of service delivery by private sector employees working within CPA outsourcing and employed on fixed term contracts.

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Although this downward trend is similar the EU, there are some features specific to individual countries. For example, in Poland, the Government appointed after the elections tried to reduce the level of employment in state administration. This resulted in the Act on the rationalisation of employment in state budgetary agencies and selected units of the public finance sector in years — in Polish. However, the Constitutional Court ruled, in , that parts of the Act were unconstitutional, and it was suspended.

The number of employees in state administration increased by 14, in —, although the government is trying to manage this process by limiting the number of civil service appointments. The UK central public administration is characterised by an increasing reliance on outsourcing and the employment of low-grade staff on fixed-term contracts. Although the number of directly employed civil servants has fallen, the total managed expenditure per civil servant has increased considerably in the last few years. In addition to widespread employment cuts, the available data shows that there are several Member States Denmark, Poland, Portugal, Spain where some specific groups of public workers such as those on fixed-term or temporary contracts, and older workers have experienced a remarkable downward trend in employment.

The reports show that approximately one third of the dismissed workers were in this age group, which constitutes only one sixth of CPA workers. In Portugal, the freezing of external recruitment in the public sector has moved in tandem with a reduction in precarious forms of public employment, since budget cuts have led to a dismissal of employees with fixed-term contracts. Also, since , only workers performing sovereign functions namely in the military, police, foreign affairs or justice continue to enjoy civil servant status with permanent appointment.

The majority of Portuguese civil servants have become public workers in public functions with open-ended contracts, although those engaged before January enjoy higher employment security than those engaged after that date. In Spain, available data show that the reduction in employment levels is particularly affecting temporary salaried public workers, whereas the number of people in permanent employment has remained much more stable. It is therefore to be expected that the average satisfaction level with job stability has decreased recently among the public workers in Spain, according to figures from the Spanish Ministry of Employment and Social Security in Spanish.

It is important to mention that the analysis of CPA working conditions and how they have changed is subject to a limited availability of information, which generally does not distinguish between the working conditions of different sub groups of public workers. It is important to stress that in most of the EU28, working in public administration as a whole is seen as more secure and attractive than working in the private sector. On the other hand, public administration workers seem to:.

National sources also confirm that public sector workers in several areas have better working conditions. Available information from several countries such as Belgium, Norway, Netherlands, Spain or Sweden confirms that public administration workers enjoy greater general job satisfaction than their private counterparts. There are also instances in some countries such as Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece or Lithuania of higher levels of career and employment security.

In Cyprus, public administration workers enjoy flexible starting times for work although with limits ; something rarely used in the private sector. In Lithuania and Poland, public administration workers enjoy better defined and more regular working times in comparison with the whole economy, according to Statistics Lithuania and the Polish Central Statistical Office in Polish. In the Netherlands, the the Dutch Working Conditions Survey in Dutch shows that public workers have shorter working hours per week than their private counterparts. Public administration workers also report having the opportunity for working time flexibility allowing for a better work-life balance, which therefore increases their job satisfaction.

For instance, in Poland, public administration workers seem to have more opportunity to change their working hours and take a day off without taking a holiday leave because of family emergencies, according to the Polish Central Statistical Office in Polish. Information from several countries such as Belgium, Czech Republic, Greece, Lithuania, Spain and the UK also shows that public administration workers enjoy better pay than those in the private sector. This is due not only to higher fixed wages, but also to a considerably higher amount paid in terms of bonuses, social and other benefits, according to the Czech Statistical Office.

National information from Belgium, Romania, the Netherlands and Sweden shows that public administration workers get more opportunities for employer-paid training than their private counterparts. Also, the Dutch Working Conditions Survey in Dutch shows that the percentage of public workers receiving internal and external training Information from Latvia, Lithuania and Spain suggests that there is a very low prevalence of occupational diseases and accidents at work among public service workers in comparison with national averages.

Data from Statistics Lithuania also show that public workers have better occupational health and safety conditions than their private counterparts. On a more general note, Greek data stresses that public workers enjoy greater opportunities to exercise the right to strike than those in the private sector. There is a perception among public administration workers especially women in Sweden that they have larger workloads than people in the private sector.

In Denmark, the Danish Working Environment Authority Arbejdstilsynet inspected six Ministries and governmental agencies, and found five failed to meet the requirements for acceptable psychosocial working environments due to high workloads and time pressures, according to a report on the website of the commercial and clerical union HK in Danish. In Belgium, Spain , and the Netherlands, public employees seem to be particularly exposed to aggression and violence from third parties. These elements could partly explain some attitudes of CPA workers.

Also, in Belgium and in Germany , absenteeism among public workers is particularly high in comparison with other sectors. However, in Germany this is more prevalent among lower grade workers than among high-ranking employees, according to a report by the German Ministry of the Interior in German.

Norwegian Public Administration workers seem to be particularly affected by organisational changes and have higher absenteeism rates than their private sector counterparts due to health reasons, according to Statistics Norway, As already mentioned, there are very few specific data at national level on the working conditions of Central Public Administration workers. The data that do exist tend to address different topics.

However, they confirm the existence of a positive global differential for CPA workers. This data show that Austrian administrative service CPA employees are particularly satisfied with their:. Also, they seem to be less affected by stress at work than other public occupational groups. In Finland, state employees show higher satisfaction levels related to job security and training opportunities in comparison with the national average according to data from the Finnish Ministry of Employment and the Economy in Finnish.

In Latvia, information from the central statistical bureau shows that CPA workers have higher pay levels than other public and private workers. A similar result can be seen in Poland, where CPA workers have better average gross wages than the public sector as a whole, or indeed private sector workers. However, according to the Austrian federal chancellery CPA workers seem less satisfied in terms of:. As the table below shows, in a majority of countries the Labour Inspectorates or equivalent entities are the responsible bodies for both the public and private sectors.

Danish Working Environment Authority Arbejdstilsynet. Department for Occupational Safety and Health. In some countries there are specific organisations in charge of the inspection and enforcement of regulations on working conditions in Central Public Administration. OSH administrations of the Bundeslaender and the independent public accident insurance institutions. In France, the role of the labour inspector does not extend to the public sector.

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There were Occupational Health and Safety Inspectors responsible for central public administration at the end of , according to the government report L'inspection du travail en France en in French, In Germany inspection of working conditions in CPA differs from the dual occupational safety and health OSH system in the private sector. It consists of the OSH administrations of the Bundeslaender and the independent public accident insurance institutions holding joint responsibility for inspection of working conditions and prevention of accidents.

The office does not employ inspectors, but delegates inspection to accident insurers or liability associations. The State Labour Inspectorate VDI is responsible for overseeing the working conditions of workers with employment contracts according to the Labour Code. In addition to what could be classed as their normal responsibilities, as stated above, these bodies often assume other functions such as technical assistance, mediation and conciliation. Some interesting initiatives and programmes have also been identified.

In Cyprus, the Labour department is, at the time of writing, implementing a project on reducing the gender pay gap between workers, including groups of civil servants and public employees. In Finland, during the last few years inspectors focused on specific issues in central public administration, such as:. This comprised seminars and a survey of public sector employees.

However, as yet, most administrations have either not carried out any of these surveys, or published any result. Most of the expertise of the central government on work and health for CPA is organised by the Work Society Agency, which in turn oversees the Expertise Centre for Organisation and Personnel. However, even in countries where the Labour Inspectorate has responsibility for both private and public sectors, other institutions specifically dealing with public administration are also involved.

For instance, in Slovenia, the role of the Labour Inspectorate of the RS is limited in the public sector by the authority of the Public Administration Inspectorate. In Italy, CIVIT see above monitors performance, transparency and corruption risks in public administration, and also wellbeing at work. In the Netherlands, apart from inspection, the Work and Health Catalogues allow many different sectors to exercise a certain amount of autonomy over their working conditions.

The social partners need to make an agreement, which need to be approved by the overarching safety body, the SZW Inspectorate. For the CPA, there are six such catalogues. They cover the following risks:.

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In Poland, some specific areas of working conditions are the responsibility of authorities other than the Labour Inspectorate. It is interesting to mention that, in some countries, there is a role for regional bodies as in the Czech Republic which has eight regional labour inspectorates; Finland whose regional state administrative agencies form the Occupational Safety and Health Administration ; and Spain where the regional autonomous administrations of Catalonia and the Basque Country took responsibility for their own labour inspections in and respectively.

The division of supervision among several entities, depending on the working conditions under consideration, can be observed in several countries:. In Belgium, the legal protection of the statutory rules on career aspects like evaluation, promotion, nomination or sanction is ensured by the Council of State , but the social inspection is part of the Department of Social Security and the labour inspection is part of the Department of Work, which act both in the public and private sector. In Cyprus, the Department of Labour Inspection is responsible for the improvement of occupational health and safety standards and compliance, while the Department of Labour Relations is responsible for the prevention and settlement of industrial disputes, the safeguarding of the right of workers to associate.

The Social Insurance Services also play a role and the Office of the Commissioner for Administration Ombudsman has an inspecting role in cases of discrimination in employment. In all cases, the action of these bodies applies both in the private and the public sector. In Ireland, the Civil Service Conciliation and Arbitration Scheme KB PDF provides for dealing with claims and proposals relating to the conditions of service of civil servants and to secure the fullest co-operation between the State, as employer, and civil servants, as employees. Also, the implementation body for the public service agreement is made up of public sector management and unions and an independent chair.

Implementation of this code is monitored by the Department of Employee Relations under the Office of the Prime Minister. However, disciplinary procedures in the public service must be applied according to the Public Service Commission PSC regulations. Also, the employment commission provides safeguards against unjustifiable distinctions, exclusions and preferences. The Ombudsman can provide other remedies for public officers who feel they have been treated unfairly at work.

Within the UK there are no specific bodies with responsibility for inspection, enforcement and compliance with regulations or legislation for public sector workers. In terms of ensuring compliance with employment legislation the UK has a system requiring, for the most part, individual enforcement action through the Employment Tribunal system.

In the Greek public sector there is no single body, equivalent to the private sector's Labour Inspectorate that controls the application of labour law or sanctions imposed in the public sector. Issues related to service status or compliance with health and safety specifications, for example, are controlled by the supervising bodies of each service. However, it seems that there is no tradition in Hungary of inspecting working conditions. As can be seen, there is a wide variety of national situations and approaches to the inspection and enforcement of compliance of regulations on working conditions in CPA, but in all cases, except Hungary, there are systems in place for this purpose.

However, according to the national contributions, it can be said that labour inspectorates and other bodies CPA-specific or not mainly focus on OSH, with other areas such as remuneration, equality, career and promotion and working time being somewhat neglected. Maybe this is due to the much regulated character of employment in the public sector and that, as trade unions in some countries point out, inspectors give priority to the private sector where the risk of non-compliance is higher.

Generally it seems that inspectorates do not focus extensively on working conditions in the CPA sector since this sector is seen as one of the least likely to have unfavourable working conditions and thus the sector is not monitored on the basis of complaints. Available information shows that working conditions amongst public administration workers in general, and CPA workers in particular, have registered a negative trend in the last few years, especially since the economic crisis started in mid Table 7 synthesises the main developments reported, according to the information available.

This table, for reasons of concision, may not be a totally thorough representation of the situation for each CPA. Cuts and freezes in employment and wages are the most reported developments and the measures most commonly used to respond to the impact of the crisis. Other features which have contributed to the deterioration of working conditions in CPA, are:. The available evidence from countries such as Germany, Greece or Spain shows an increase in working hours.

Weekly working time in the German public sector has been extended from InSpain, reforms introduced in increased working hours for public workers from 35 to The Public Service Agreement — KB PDF a four-year framework agreement between unions and Government struck in also introduced changes in office opening hours, with a view to delivering public services outside traditional business times. For instance, in Estonia, public workers report greater workloads as well as decreasing cooperation and feedback levels from supervisors in in comparison with , according to a report by the Estonian Public Service in Estonian, 5 MB PDF.

In France, public workers in services such as public employment agencies, the police and education services are also experiencing an increasing workload, which can be partially explained by the growing use of some of these public services. Not surprisingly, stress levels are also growing amongst public workers. Thus, the share of Belgian public workers affected by higher levels of stress has increased in the last few years, affecting up to In Germany, the health reports produced by the Ministry of the Interior in German argues that CPA employees have faced an above-average amount of mental stress since There are many Member States Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and the UK where CPA workers have experienced direct pay freezes or pay cuts for one or more years to cuts in other income related aspects, such as bonuses, changes in sickness leaves reduction in compensation or in pensions special levy on workers salary.

However there are some differences in how they are applied with some countries applying both measures. In Greece, public workers have been affected by basic salary cuts, as well as by the introduction of a single pay scale. This means that employees in equivalent positions and with equivalent qualifications receive the same pay irrespective of the ministry in which they operate in practice, this single pay scale has meant further wage cuts for many public employees.

Although the act stipulated that this measure would be temporary and would apply only until 1 January , the reduced salaries were only partially recovered in Although these reductions were planned to stay in effect only until the end of , they were renewed until the end of Not surprisingly, average gross wages of Lithuanian civil servants have fallen between — on a scale varying from 2. In the UK, central government employees have been affected by a three-year pay freeze since Several countries applied pay freezes and cuts.

In Hungary, a pay freeze was introduced in , as well as the cut of the 13 th month wage. In Portugal, performance-related wage increases have been been frozen in public administration, as well as any other wage increases. There were also cuts in family allowances for public workers. As already mentioned, in addition to direct pay freezes or pay cuts, some Member States Cyprus, Denmark, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and the UK have, since , introduced several cuts in other types of income, such as bonuses, changes in sickness leave entitlement and pensions. In Denmark, data from the finance ministry in Danish show that CPA workers were not paid for overtime or for any surplus on their flexible working hours scheme throughout In Ireland , the Government has been reviewing, since , the allowances paid to public service workers and has decided not to give them to those who were not in receipt of these allowance before February 1, In Portugal, since , the possibility of combining public salaries with public pensions has been banned.

In the UK, in addition to pay freezes, there have been major changes to public sector pension schemes, which have meant increased employee contributions and reduced payments in retirement. Moreover, even when there are no direct cuts or freezes, as in Germany, data from the WSI collective agreement archive in German suggest that wages in the federal administration have grown more slowly than those in the private sector on the basis of averaging out private sector agreements since In Bulgaria, official statistics show that the provision of training for public workers has been reduced in the last years, with only 7.

Moreover, about half of the Bulgarian administration units had not set aside funds for training in their budgets BGI. In Estonia, public sector expenditure cuts due to the economic crisis have resulted in reduced training opportunities for public workers EEI. In Latvia, since , there has been a dramatic fall in the number of public sector workers participating in training organised by the Latvian School of Public Administration from 11, taking part in , to about 3, ever since. Public administration workers in general and CPA workers in particular in several Member States have also seen their access to training activities squeezed.

In Belgium, for example, public workers have complained of decreasing levels of coaching from supervisors between —, according to Belgian data from the research foundation Stichting Innovatie and Arbeid in Dutch. In fact, according to the Civil Service People Survey in , compared with , fewer staff in felt they had been able to take opportunities to help them develop their careers or improve their performance. In Italy, according to information from the General Accounting Office in Italian , the number of total hours devoted to training activities in the public sector in fell from 2, However, the evolution of working conditions for CPA workers has not been uniformly gloomy.

Also, the wage agreement signed between the government and unions for — included a bonus for all state workers equivalent to 0. Also, in Malta, a collective agreement was signed in October setting out improvements in:. In Poland, various legal changes have been introduced during — including the Civil Service Act , some of which have improved career and employment security. Although there is, for example, now additional holiday leave for civil servants, there are also more controversial changes, such as the extension of job assessments to all employees of Civil Service Corps, and or the shortening of the period for which temporary employment contracts are to given to people entering the civil service.

This decree included measures to weed out harassment and mobbing. Flexible working times were introduced in In contrast with the general European trend, in Nordic countries, especially in Finland, Norway and Sweden, CPA employees seem to enjoy a more stable working environment. In Finland, the Office for the Government as Employer considers that work wellbeing among state workers has been high and is expected to get even better despite the structural changes and actions taken to increase productivity.

In Norway, workers report high job satisfaction and low job insecurity. In other countries, the trend is more about avoiding further deterioration Lithuania or more general issues France and UK.

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In Lithuania, the amount of public resources devoted to training activities was maintained in the crisis, due to the use of EU structural funds. In France and the UK, diversity has improved among public sector workers with an increased presence of women, minority ethnic employees and disabled employees. However, this data from the ministry of public service has to be read carefully as it could be the result of a smaller reduction in female employment compare to their male counterparts. This report also identified positive developments in issues such as satisfaction with:.

Again, these developments should be interpreted with caution as expression of satisfaction is subjective, and an increase could merely reflect the security felt in comparison with growing unemployment elsewhere. In some countries, public debate on working conditions in public administration centres on the supposedly privileged status of public workers compared with private sector workers.

In the UK, public debate traditionally characterises public sector workers as being relatively secure with good benefits such as pensions, sick pay and annual leave.