ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses question of what extent the coalition government effected meaningful change in the pre-existing pattern of UK public sector employment relations, or whether change was blown off course by similar problems, delays and unintended consequences as had affected previous governments. It looks at the areas of public sector employment, pay and bargaining, collective representation and industrial action and, importantly, the nature of parallel changes in those rapidly expanding shadow or extended state industries delivering services on the state's behalf as contractors. Little obvious dissension can be traced between the two governing parties in their respective approaches to public sector employment relations. However, political devolution in the UK has expanded the fault-line between Westminster and the devolved administrations on approaches to the public services and their workforces. The full implications of such changes for both employment relations and public services are, however, unlikely to be clear until well into the 2015-20 Conservative administration.
