The Rise of Public Sector Employee Strikes in Africa: Should We Be worried?

Abstract

In this article, I explore the rising waves of workplace militancy in the public sector in sub-Saharan Africa. As a purely qualitative study, the research involved in-depth interviews with Ugandan teachers at public schools and lecturers at public universities who have been persistently involved in a series of strike activities. It also included a detailed documentary analysis and a review of related empirical literature. The findings indicated that strike activity is not only shifting from the private to the public sector, but also that the repertoire of strike tactics available to public employees has become so diverse that some actions might not be easily discernible as industrial action. These included actions similar to what has been described in German as “Innere Kündigung” (inner resignation) and “Dienst nach Vorschrift” (work to rule). Interestingly, the findings also suggested that public employee strikes have some positive value that could be harnessed for the greater good of public service delivery and that strict restrictions on public sector strikes could be counterproductive.