7. Plaid Cymru Debate: Workers' Rights

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:13 pm on 1 May 2019.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 5:13, 1 May 2019

Absolutely, and I'm coming onto that in a moment. Social partnership has indeed, as Dawn Bowden said, been part of our DNA from the outset of devolution. We recognise its critical role in shaping effective policy and we have established many mechanisms to support this, such as the Welsh Ministers' business scheme, and, in the early days of devolution, the business partnership council, the council for economic development, and latterly a social partners strategy group and the Wales social partners unit.

I also agree with Dawn Bowden that we are rightly proud of our model of social partnership. It has indeed helped to deliver tangible rights for workers in Wales through the Trade Union (Wales) Act 2017 as she mentioned, the agricultural wages Order, and through the ethical code of procurement in supply chains. The guiding principles on the appropriate use of non-guaranteed hours arrangements in Welsh devolved public services is an excellent example of how successful this partnership can be. Nevertheless, I do absolutely recognise many of the points and issues that Leanne and Helen Mary raised. I absolutely agree with them that we need to do more for Wales to become a fair work nation. For that to happen, both our policies and our supporting institutional arrangements will need to work together to shape the nature of work and employment in Wales. We appointed—[Interruption.] Yes, of course.