End-users, Public Services, and Industrial Relations: The Restructuring of Social Services in Ontario

The global financial crisis beginning in 2008 resulted in a ballooning public debt and government efforts to constrain public expenditures. Responses to the financial crisis and its impact on human services in Ontario demonstrate the complex interactions across key actors -- employers, government, unions, and family advocates. The case explores the role of end-users, including families and people with developmental disabilities, as actors in the industrial relations system. At the strategic level, end-users have precipitated significant public policy changes, including the closure of large, state-run institutions. End-users have displaced agency managers as employers at the organizational level. Finally, the case shows how end-users have changed the nature of the work process itself, shifting direct support from custodial care to a model of individual and community development.