2. Urgent Question: Tata’s Port Talbot Site

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:19 pm on 22 November 2016.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Suzy Davies Suzy Davies Conservative 2:19, 22 November 2016

I just wonder if you can clarify this, because I don’t think you actually answered the question that Bethan Jenkins put to you in a way that I understood. Are these agency staff or not? Because David Rees seems to suggest they’re not. In your response to us originally, you suggested that they are. They may be agency staff, but they may be former Tata employees. Can you clarify that? If they’re not Tata’s former employees, can you tell me what the taskforce has done—obviously, part of their role is to deal with employment—to ensure that Tata’s first pick is always its former employees, where that’s relevant? Can you tell me also, if there is to be a $500 million investment in the plant, which is suggested at the moment, is this period of employment, or are these employees, part of a more strategic plan from Tata to take on more staff, or is this just covering over a sort of temporary need to backfill some jobs that have disappeared?