Diolch. I'd like to begin by thanking our partners in the trade union movement for their work in supporting Plaid Cymru to develop this motion. Today is International Workers' Day, and we are pleased to be able to host today's debate. We believe it's important to mark the day by giving Members in this Chamber the chance to voice support and solidarity for workers and to contribute to the debate on workers' rights. TUC Cymru want to make Wales a fair work nation. Plaid Cymru shares these basic values. Surely, we all want workers in Wales to benefit from collective bargaining and to have their say on pay, workplace conditions, as well as the terms and conditions on their contracts. I'm sure that most Members will be more than familiar with these matters from our casework. Time and time again, we hear about unfair labour market practices, low pay, dodgy contracts, discrimination and illegal employment practices and so on, and so on.

It's true to say that unemployment has fallen in Wales since the start of the financial crisis, but that doesn't mean that there has been a rise in pay. Wales is blighted by low-paid work. Around a quarter of jobs in this country were paid below the voluntary living wage in 2017, with regional variations to that figure. For example, one in five jobs in Caerphilly were low paid; one in three jobs in Blaenau Gwent were low paid. In 2016, roughly 17,000 jobs in Wales were paid below the statutory minimum wage. The Low Pay Commission found that the majority of underpaid workers are women, part-time, and hourly paid. This, in turn, has led to an increase in in-work poverty. Unlike the past, work today does not necessarily lead to a route out of poverty. Pay, hours of work, changes to social security benefits have all had an impact and a detrimental impact on our communities. Between 2014 and 2017, there was a 10 per cent rise in the number of children living in relative poverty where all working-age adults were in work. There is much more I could say about zero-hours contracts, for example, that contribute to this, but my colleague Helen Mary Jones will cover that shortly. 

The Senedd may not have all the economic levers to deal with all these problems, but there are things that the Government can do, and we are calling on the Welsh Government in this motion to include a commitment to introducing a social partnership Act to kick-start a cultural change in Wales's labour market, where the workers' collective voice is equal to the voice of employers—a Welsh way of strengthening workers' rights that we have a long history of championing. So, let's make sure that we keep that tradition alive.

We also want to see a clear commitment to this in the Government's legislative programme. But I have to say, we found it more than disappointing that a Labour Government has essentially gutted our motion by deleting every point after point 1, turning it into another meaningless self-congratulatory statement, with wishy-washy words and a long kick into even longer grass. I know, because I shared a panel with Martin Mansfield from Wales TUC, that they want to see this legislation passed with a clear time frame. 

So, I look forward to hearing the Government's justification for amending the motion in such a way, and I appeal to all of those Labour Members on the back benches who value their relationships with the trade unions to back us on this. Show them, on International Workers' Day, of all days, that you will put workers' rights above the party whip on this day today.