7. 6. UKIP Wales Debate: Zero-hours Contracts

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:27 pm on 1 March 2017.

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Photo of Bethan Sayed Bethan Sayed Plaid Cymru 5:27, 1 March 2017

I don’t, actually, because we obviously put forward the agricultural wages Bill and that was challenged in the Supreme Court, and I think if you’re going to be setting the agenda, politically and principally, we need to be doing that with the trade union Bill. I would concur that the Welsh Government is doing the right thing by taking that forward, and I would have thought that, on issues such as zero-hours contracts, the same could have been done and should be done, and I would hope that that would be reflected in how you operate in the next five years here in this Assembly.

The dramatic rise in the number of zero-hours contracts in Wales lays bare the weakness of Labour’s record on protecting workers’ rights in Wales and is a strong indication that insecure and low-wage employment is becoming a bigger feature of the job market here in Wales.

We believe that the success and well-being of working people across Wales needs to be absolute if we want to improve our economy. We do not believe in the race to the bottom and we do not accept that our workers should be forced to live with financial insecurity. We call it an outrage when hard-working people in Wales cannot make ends meet because they have no idea whether or not they will get paid from one week to the next. We want to see a Wales where work is rewarded properly and fairly, where a working week or month provides enough for somebody to live on and the stability and reassurance to be able to plan ahead financially. We must begin by making these commitments here as an Assembly, and I urge Members to support our amendments here today.