Item 5 on the agenda is a statement by the Deputy Minister for Housing and Local Government: working in partnership for a fair work Wales, and I call on the Deputy Minister for Housing on Local Government, Hannah Blythyn.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I welcome this opportunity to update the Senedd on the valuable work we are doing in social partnership in order to realise our ambition for a Wales of fair work. The past year has changed the way that we look at almost everything in our daily lives, including the world of work. And it has brought into ever sharper focus the challenges that already existed in the workplace alongside a reinforced appreciation for the workers that have kept us going, day in, day out during the coronavirus pandemic.

This Government absolutely recognises that the vast majority of employers have done right by their workforce, supporting them and taking steps to keep them safe. But, unfortunately and unacceptably, we know this has not been the experience of all workers. Coronavirus has exposed and amplified entrenched inequalities in the workplace. And as we take the road to recovery, it’s crucial that we do not allow challenging economic conditions to provide the fertile ground within which unfair work can take root and spread. It’s not just about building back better, but about choosing the route that best enables us to forge a fairer future together.

The Welsh Government is committed to putting into practice our priorities and ambitions for a fair work Wales, using all the levers at our devolved disposal to help realise fair work outcomes, and we have made good progress in the past 12 months. 

The Welsh Government has established the social care fair work forum, bringing together trade unions, employers and the Welsh Government to chart a course towards fairer work in the social care sector in Wales. Never have we all been more aware of our incredible social care workers and the work they do than during the coronavirus pandemic. The forum has quickly established a number of task and finish groups to address issues around pay and progression, collective bargaining and ensuring a safe, healthy and inclusive working environment. 

Recent progress on COVID workplace protections has been enabled by the work of the health and safety forum. Considerations around workplace health and safety have been radically altered by coronavirus and the national forum was established in the autumn to provide a way for trade unions, the main employer bodies from the private and public sectors in Wales and the relevant UK enforcement agencies to come together to share their collective experience and work together to enhance workplace health and safety in Wales. The changes we have made together to regulations and guidance will not only help keep workers safer, but our communities and country too. They are testament to what can be done when Government, trade unions and employers work together in social partnership.

There’s never been a more important time for workers and employers to be aware of their rights and responsibilities at work. Against the backdrop of the pandemic and on the back of a key recommendation of the Fair Work Commission report, the Welsh Government has teamed up with our social partners, the Wales Trades Union Congress, the Federation of Small Businesses, CBI, Chambers Wales and other key partners in Acas and Citizens Advice, to launch a campaign in December to strengthen knowledge and understanding of workplace rights and responsibilities. The campaign reinforces our support for widening access to trade unions and the benefits of employers and trade unions working as partners in a spirit of collaboration, shared commitment and mutual respect. Likewise, employers also need to be supported, and through the campaign, we are connecting employers across Wales with the support and advice they need to comply with the law.

We are also building relationships with UK agencies to improve networks, intelligence sharing and our own capacity to influence non-devolved policy. This approach is already paying dividends. Our work with Acas has seen them deliver additional free digital briefing sessions for employers and workers in Wales. This has linked into our campaign to help awareness of workplace rights and responsibilities. 

Working across the Welsh Government, we are exercising the power of the public purse and our social partnership approach to promote fair work practices across both the public and private sectors, using levers such as the economic contract and the code of practice on ethical employment in supply chains. The challenge now is to strengthen the implementation by improving our reach and ability to both drive and support behavioural change. 

It is right that we measure that which we value. And working with our social partners, we are developing a set of indicators that we will use to measure and track a range of fair work outcomes in Wales. For example, this includes tracking the proportion of the workforce earning at least the real living wage.  

Finally, we are strengthening the social partnership approach that has been an important and established feature of our devolved politics and economy. Working in partnership has become the Welsh way of doing things and social partnership is a key way in which we can collectively improve public service delivery, and ensure fair work and wider social and economic well-being. Later this month, we'll be consulting on a landmark draft social partnership Bill, which will strengthen and promote social partnership, take forward fair work outcomes and achieve socially responsible procurement. 

The pandemic has meant we have all had to change the way we live and work. This is no time to let up, let alone roll back workplace protections. As recommended by the Fair Work Commission's report, we are actively engaging with the UK Government to defend and promote Welsh interests. Any erosion of workers' rights is unacceptable, unnecessary and damaging, and we are holding the UK Government to its promise to protect workers' rights following Brexit. After all, a race to the bottom on workers' rights is not in the interests of workers, businesses nor the broader economy. Safe, secure and rewarding work is not just in the interests of the individual but industry too. It doesn't just make a difference to the workplace but to the Welsh economy as a whole. A better deal for workers will mean a stronger recovery for our communities and our country. That's why this Welsh Government remains committed to working towards fair work in Wales, not solely in principle but in practice, working together in social partnership to make a lasting difference to lives and livelihoods.

I would like to thank the Deputy Minister very much for her statement and to confirm that we in Plaid Cymru share the ambitions of the Welsh Government around this very important agenda, and add to the thanks that she has already given to all of those who are working together and collaborating on this important work.

I just have a couple of specific points that I wish to raise with the Deputy Minister. Firstly, she's right to say, of course, that the vast majority of employers have behaved very well, but we know that some, as she said, have not. I want to draw the Welsh Government's attention again to the ongoing situation at the DVLA. Now, obviously, the DVLA is not a devolved employer, but the Welsh Government does have a responsibility around enforcing the coronavirus regulations and ensuring that people are able to work safely. I am still receiving correspondence from people from the east of my region, in communities like Llanelli and Llangennech, who work at the DVLA, and they are still very concerned about being pressurised to work in unsafe circumstances, to the extent that some of them don't even want me to use their names, they don't want me to pass things on, even confidentially, to Welsh Ministers, because they're so worried. Now, I know that Welsh Government has sought reassurances from the UK Government, but it seems clear to me that, if those assurances are being given, then they are disingenuous at least, and I would ask the Deputy Minister to have further conversations with her colleagues in Welsh Government and see what more can be done to enable those workers to work safely. And I cite this, Deputy Presiding Officer, as an example of a really big employer that's got no excuse for not engaging in best practice.

I was pleased to hear the Deputy Minister refer to the social care work forum, and I'm in no doubt that their work will be very valuable, but I am concerned about delays in doing what it is fairly obvious to me needs to be done. I'm glad that there is a task and finish group looking at pay and progression, but surely the Deputy Minister must agree with me, it is time for all of those working in the care sector, especially after everything they've done in this last year, to simply be paid the real living wage. And I think we should aspire to be moving those workers onto Agenda for Change, onto the same pay and conditions as NHS workers. So, does the Deputy Minister agree with me that it's imperative that the work of these task and finish groups don't delay action and implementation? It is important to get it right, but these workers, predominantly women, need support and need to get justice really quickly. 

Finally, Deputy Presiding Officer, the Deputy Minister makes reference to the economic contract and the code of practice on ethical employment in supply chains, and I'm very supportive of the principle of both of those. And she speaks of improving implementation and driving and supporting behavioural change, but can I ask the Deputy Minister what steps the Welsh Government are putting in place, what measures they're putting in place, to ensure that once an employer, for example, has signed up to the economic contract, that when they have been given grant aid and support or preferential loans, they then actually do follow the economic contract? Because it's one thing to get somebody to commit to something, it's another thing to check that they do actually follow through with those commitments. And I wonder what further thoughts the Deputy Minister has about how we can ensure that, as we come out of the pandemic, those commitments when they're made are actually kept to. Diolch yn fawr. 

Can I thank Helen Mary Jones for her supportive comments there and her commitment in this area? If I start with the last point the Member made with regard to the economic contract, we're currently looking at actually how the economic contract has been applied previously, and there's a piece of work being led by my colleague the Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales in terms of actually how, like I said, we can strengthen not just its implementation in terms of how it drives that change within organisations, but also making sure that it does deliver the change that it's intended to as well. I think it's a really good tool in terms of actually how we manage those relationships, and also support employers who do want to do the right thing to get to that point where we would expect them to be with their workforce, and actually—in terms of, actually, things around, particularly, areas around fair work as well, and particularly the well-being of their workforce.

In respect of the DVLA and the Member—[Inaudible.]—I don't know. It's shocking but not surprising that people are—. It shouldn't be the case that people are in fear of giving their information to a Member in order to make the case for them, and I can assure the Member that we will continue to strongly make the case for workers at the DVLA with the UK Government, and we're also—and make sure, obviously, we're in close contact with and speaking to the Public and Commercial Services Union, who are representing members there, and I'm happy to keep both Helen Mary Jones and other Members updated with regard to that.

I take on board what the Member says with regard to the work of the health and social care forum and the task and finish groups. Clearly, we what we want to see is action, but the right kind of action, and I think—. Like I said, if we hadn't been aware before of the incredible work of those health and social care workers looking after many of our nearest and dearest—and I'm sure we've all had personal experience as well, like myself—it's been brought into ever sharper focus with the pandemic, which makes the urgency of our work, but making sure we do it in the right way to make sure that that profession is not just fairly rewarded, but fairly recognised as well for the role that they do play in our communities right across the country. 

The Deputy Minister and I, of course, share a very similar background, so it comes as no surprise that I share her support and principles that underpin our social partnership work. Can I very much welcome her statement? Not because it's easy; indeed, in my experience, it's often more difficult, but it does help to build a shared commitment to a common cause, and, in tough times like those that we've faced over the last 12 months, that pays dividends—not the dividends that are measured in monetary value, but in shared values and common cause. So, as we mark HeartUnions Week, can I pledge my commitment to the work of social partnerships and urge workers across Wales to join a union and be part of this change that we're making to build back fairer in Wales?

But, Deputy Minister, do you agree with me that a legislative framework for social partnerships that we have developed voluntarily over so many years in Wales will be a key factor in engaging key stakeholders across all sectors in both the private and the public sector, and will demonstrate how committed a future and current Welsh Labour Government will be to ensuring fairness to working people in Wales? And put that in stark contrast with the way in which the UK Government has been treating its staff in places like the DVLA, as we've heard from Helen Mary Jones, but also DWP workers in my constituency, who are being forced to move from Merthyr Tydfil to inaccessible locations elsewhere in Wales.

Deputy Minister.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and yes, I and the Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney do share a background of campaigning on workers' rights within the trade union movement, and I think it's timely for support for the social partnership approach in Wales, as we are marking HeartUnions Week across the UK and it's something that I am passionately supportive of as well.

I think, as the Member said, in the current circumstances, it's never been more important not just to protect and extend people's rights in the workplace and make people more aware of it, but the need for working in partnership. And like she said, it's not always easy, but it's the right thing to do and we have seen it. It is testament to that—over the past few months alone, the things we've been able to do in Wales to support people in work and actually to support businesses to do the right thing as well has been because of that forum we have for social partnership and the ability to bring all stakeholders around the table, albeit a virtual table at the moment. And as we move forward, what we want to do is strengthen that and formalise that commitment and that practice of social partnership with our social partnership Bill, which actually will be a key driver in the future to enable us to make those changes that we want to make within workplaces in the public sector in Wales, but also in terms of actually creating a shared objective in terms of getting to the fair work Wales we want to see, and actually which is to the mutual benefit of all stakeholders around that social partnership table.

Minister, what a difference we have within Wales during this commemoration of trade unions during this trade union week, where we actually seek to work in partnership, in contrast to the situation in London, where legislation is being considered as a way of disempowering trade unions still further. So, I very much welcome this very timely statement.

Can I also really endorse what you say about the concerns we have about some of those large corporations—British Airways, British Gas—who've sought to use COVID as a cover for undermining ethical standards of employment and workers' rights? Can I also welcome your commitment in respect of the social partnership Bill, and ask you just a couple of questions about that? The Bill, it seems to me, is one of the most forward-thinking pieces of legislation—just as the future generations legislation was, this could be for ethical standards of employment. But it does seem to me that one of the important roles that we have to support is the role of trade unions in promoting collective bargaining, and I wondered to what extent the legislation you have in mind will actually promote collective bargaining, because we know that collective bargaining is very linked to combatting in-work poverty. And also facilitating access to trade unions—just as we raise the issue of access to justice, so access to workers' rights through trade unions must be an important part of that process, Minister.

I welcome Mick Antoniw's comments and support. I know this is an area that Mick has a strong track record in advocating and working on and campaigning for, and I know it's something that he is keenly interested in. And I think the point you made in your opening, Mick, really brought it home in terms of what you said—our approach in Wales is that the door's open to talk, and to sit round the table and to take things forward, where perhaps over the border the door's often firmly shut in people's faces. But really the emphasis is on our partnership working and a positive approach in Wales, and taking that approach not to be different, but because it's the right thing to do, and it doesn't just make a difference to people in work, but it makes a difference to our communities as well and our country as a whole.

With regard to the draft social partnership Bill, clearly, one of the recommendations of the Fair Work Commission was about, actually, the importance of being able to empower that collective voice within the workplace, and the role that plays in achieving fair work in Wales. The hope is that this draft social partnership Bill will enable us to actually bring all the stakeholders around the table to set clear agendas for what we want to see in Wales in terms of how that would be achieved right across the country. I know that many of our trade union colleagues will be very involved with the consultation process, and I'm really keen to have a very innovative and very open consultation process to shape this Bill in social partnership, to ensure that the collective voice of the trade union movement and the members is heard, and, at the same time, also making sure that we do that in partnership with our stakeholders from both the public and private sectors in Wales.

Building on the comments of my colleagues Dawn Bowden and Mick Antoniw, it's definitely true, Minister, that the social partnership in Wales is a model for the UK of how businesses and unions, workers and the Government, constructively work together on jobs and the economy and the skills agenda and much more. Now, I don't want to be presumptuous, but can I ask whether the Minister would consider, with the legislation in the next Welsh Labour Government, extending the fair work provisions and the economic contract in Wales to cover all businesses that receive public assistance and taxpayer funds? This could vastly extend the awareness of employee rights and fair work, investment in workplace learning, and it could be used to boost progress towards wider uptake of the real living wage and, as Mick said, an increased openness to collective bargaining, which we know drives up wages and pay and conditions. So, Minister, is the sixth Senedd the one in which we legislate to strengthen our social partnership working and we go further and faster to make work fairer?

I thank Huw Irranca-Davies for his question and his commitment in this area as well. Absolutely, the ambition is for the sixth Senedd to be the Senedd when we legislate to strengthen the social partnership agenda in Wales to bring benefits not just for workers, but for businesses and for communities as a whole. As regards the economic contract, like I said previously, a current review is being led on that in terms of actually how we strengthen its implementation and its ability to drive that kind of change and to support businesses to do the right thing. That will be—. That's work that's being spearheaded by my colleague the Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales, but, clearly, the issues you raise around fair work and what more we can do to support and drive that in businesses right throughout Wales, and the power of the public purse to do that, will be fundamental to the work of the future social partnership council, and also actually how we use our procurement levers in terms of the power of the public sector purse not just to drive fair work, but fair work objectives across the piece, whether that be in-work training or apprenticeships to ensure that people actually—that it's not just about pay, it's about progression, and about creating that fair work Wales that I'm sure that we all very much want to see.  

Can I remind Members that, if they want to be called in statements, they should have their video cameras on so they can be seen? I will call Nick Ramsay, even though I couldn't see him. So, I don't know whether you've had a technical problem there, but I will call you. So, Nick Ramsay. 

Many problems—I'm not sure they would be classed as technical or not, but—. [Laughter.] I wasn't exactly anticipating being called, actually, for this, Dirprwy Lywydd. But, in fact, it's been a very interesting statement, and can I thank the Minister for it? I don't disagree with many of the points that have been made hitherto, but if I could just ask a couple of questions on the back of some points that have been raised, firstly, the pandemic has clearly shone a light on certain weaknesses in the area of workers' rights, weaknesses that I think we'd agree were often there anyway, but the pandemic has added extra pressures. So, as we talk about coming out of the pandemic, Minister, and building back better, too often I think that that can be an easy expression to use, but doesn't actually translate into protections on the ground. And I know you mentioned procurement in your previous answer, and that's an area that can be strengthened, so how are you going to make sure that this does actually translate into real protection and improvement to workers' rights on the ground as, as I say, we build back better? 

And secondly, the well-being of future generations Act was mentioned earlier by one of the contributors. That's something that I as Chair of the Public Accounts Committee and the committee have been working on as part of our legacy work towards the end of this Senedd, and that's another area that is often very easy to talk about and certainly should have a large part to play in terms of protections for workers and safeguarding aspects of the economy. But it's not entirely clear how things like the Welsh Government budget do actually do that. So, what thought have you given to the well-being of future generations legislation to make sure that all of these things come together, we do build back better, we do build back greener, and workers' rights are enshrined at the very heart of policy making in the Welsh Government? 

Just on that line, I think it's absolutely imperative, not just for individual workers but for workplaces across Wales, to ensure that those rights are enshrined and are top of the agenda, and to support both workers to be more aware of their rights and how to implement them and also to support businesses to know their responsibilities as well, which is why it's been central to our workplace rights and responsibilities campaign, which we're hoping now to go to the next stage and then actually to look to put it on a more permanent footing so that advice and support is available. 

The Member came in on the role that we have—he was talking about the levers we have at our disposal in Wales in order to drive forward that fair work agenda and see a real difference not just in principle, but in practice. Clearly, procurement is one of the levers we do have there. So, as part of the proposed social partnership Bill that we will be consulting on—we start the consultation later this month—it will include a focus on socially responsible procurement and actually how we build on things that are already there—the rise in support and things like community benefits—to actually make sure that procurement is a key driver to enshrine fair work in everything we do within Wales. Obviously, the social partnership council will be central to making sure that we take the experiences of workers and of businesses to make sure that we can work together collaboratively and with consensus to take forward that fair work agenda in Wales to actually really start to make a difference—or to make a bigger difference—on the ground when it comes to people actually having not just fair work and pay and protections, but actually the opportunity to progress within the workplace right across Wales.   

Thank you very much, Deputy Minister.