Europe
Researchers at the University of Manchester coordinated a five-country project looking at the impact of austerity on the public services with a particular focus on pay, procurement and equality. The countries investigated were France, Germany, Hungary, Sweden and the UK. The researchers found mixed evidence of a pay premium for public sector workers but clear indications that the imposition of austerity was having a serious impact on the public sector's former good record on gender equality. The conclusions of the country case studies also raised questions about the trend towards outsourcing and underlined the need to protect workers affected by the process, often seen as a way of cutting costs in the crisis.
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