Over one third of public service workers are employed by private companies or not for profit organisations. A Guardian article examines the consequences of people working for networks of subcontractors rather than a single organisation: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/aug/26/outsourcing-economic-risk-workers-uncertainty
‘There is firmer evidence, however, that outsourcing has negatively affected the pay and conditions of workers at lower levels of skill and pay. The National Audit Office study found that although differences in pay between transferred and new staff to a contract tended to erode over time, almost three-quarters of staff surveyed were in "manual/operative" grades and did experience deteriorating pay rates’
