Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:57 pm on 9 May 2017.
Thank you for calling me to speak in this debate, Deputy Presiding Officer. I speak in this debate as somebody who is proud to have served working people in my previous role, working for a trade union, and is committed to continuing to do so in my role as Assembly Member. It also means that I come at this debate with a little bit more of an understanding perhaps than some of how the principles and practices of social partnership work within the public and private sector in Wales. We make a lot of this social partnership and doing things differently in Wales, and it’s not just for the sake of being different. I know about that clear red water we talked about many years ago, but it’s actually because it’s the right thing to do and it actually reaps rewards not just for workers and workplaces, but actually for our economy and for our society. To not bring in and repeal these elements will definitely have an adverse effect on the social partnership approach that we so value here in Wales. I think the Conservative spokesperson said it was in the Conservative manifesto. Well, actually, to repeal these elements was in the Welsh Labour manifesto that was voted on last year.