That concludes voting time, and we will therefore move to the short debate, and the first short debate today is to be presented by Jack Sargeant. I call Jack Sargeant to make his presentation. Jack Sargeant.

Diolch, Llywydd. Can I start by declaring an interest as an immensely proud member of both Unite and Community unions? I have agreed, Llywydd, to give my co-chair of the Senedd Unite group, the Member for Bridgend, Sarah Murphy, a minute of my time and also colleagues Carolyn Thomas and Mike Hedges.

The Deputy Presiding Officer (David Rees) took the Chair.

Over the last year, we have seen our communities and working people pull together to help each other and keep each other safe, workers in so many spheres making huge sacrifices: in our hospitals and care homes, in our vaccination centres, delivering food and essential items, keeping our communities clean and our homes safe and so much more besides. Deputy Llywydd, in the Labour movement, we have a word for this pulling together: we call it solidarity.

We also saw at Airbus and the local partners from the local supply chain the example of the ventilator challenge: workers putting their lives on hold to switch production to ventilators at a moment's notice. Non-engineers will not understand how difficult that is. What those workers did was miraculous and saved lives. Six months of normal ventilator production in just one day. And I repeat that: six months of normal ventilator production in just one single day.

We must look back on this last year and recognise that we need a fairer deal for working people in this country and that Governments at both ends of the M4 should be looking to reward working people and the organisations that represent them with a greater say and more protections. I, for one, hugely welcome the work the Minister is doing to place social partnership at the heart of this Welsh Labour Government.

As representatives of proud manufacturing communities in the north-east of Wales, we see countless examples of the amazing work that trade unions—and in particular shop stewards like Unite's Daz Reynolds—do for our communities. Again, the work done at Airbus last year by Daz and Unite Wales the Union, to secure jobs, was a shining example of social partnership in action. Unions stepped in and negotiated a shorter working week, saving 360 highly skilled well-paid jobs.

Let's contrast that with what happens when employers do not work with unions and seek to undermine their workforce: the disgusting scandal of fire and rehire that seeks to lessen workers' terms and conditions with the threat of the sack if they don't agree. Such practices, as the First Minister so eloquently stated last week, have no place in Wales, and they have no place anywhere else. Deputy Llywydd, this practice is abhorrent, and we should all stand with unions to say it must stop. Warm words are not enough, and the UK Conservative Government should immediately ban fire and rehire. I, for one, am not interested in voluntary codes; working people need the full protection of the law.

In Wales we have a chance to lead the way and build solidarity and fairness for working people into everything we do. There are two ways to bring this about: for Governments to commit to working in partnership with people and trade unions, and for us all to join the union and stand in solidarity with our colleagues.

In closing, Deputy Llywydd, unions have delivered so much for working people: workplace safety, paid leave, the weekend and so much more, and it is high time that we empowered them to deliver a fairer deal for working people. Diolch yn fawr.

At the start I'll declare my interest as a proud member of Unite, Unison, CWU and GMB trade unions.

Thank you, Jack, for tabling this vital short debate today, and I echo everything that you've said. The position could not be clearer: the Tory UK Government has no intention of standing up for workers, so in their absence we must fight fire and rehire with solidarity and shame. Solidarity with our workers across all sectors facing this abhorrent choice, with our trade union brothers and sisters striking and fighting, and shame, because shame is a powerful motivator when it comes to these big businesses. Just look at how British Airways were shamed into ditching their fire and rehire plans.

So, that's why we need more of us here today to stand up and say, 'Shame on you British Gas, Asda, Sainsbury's via Argos, for threatening your staff with being fired if they don't take worse terms and conditions, and shame on you for treating your staff so poorly when they have worked so hard during this pandemic and boosted your profits and lined your shareholders' pockets. And shame on you, UK Government, for turning your back on working people when you could end fire and rehire, but you choose not to.' 

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Can I thank Jack Sargeant for giving me a minute? I agree with everything that Jack Sargeant and Sarah Murphy have said about fire and rehire, but I am not going to rehearse that. I'm going to move on to another topic about how workers are treated so badly, and that's wages.

The minimum wage was brought in over 20 years ago, but we've now reached the stage where we should be legislating for the real living wage. The real living wage is based on the cost of living and is currently voluntarily paid by over 7,000 employers. In April 2016, the Conservative Government introduced a higher minimum wage rate for all staff over 25 years of age, and misnamed it the national living wage. It is many things, but it is not a living wage.

The minimum wage is not calculated according to what employees and their families need to live. It is based on reaching 66 per cent of median earnings by 2024. Currently it is over £1 an hour less than the real living wage. What does that mean? It means that, for somebody working 40 hours, they get £40 less, and to many of them, that is their food bill for the week. And I think that is the point for people: many people are working full time and are still in poverty. People should not be in poverty when they're working full-time. We need people to be paid a real living wage, and driving down wages and paying everybody the minimum wage does nothing for improving people's productivity, and does nothing for people's lives.

I thank Jack for bringing this debate to the Senedd, and for all he does to support workers and industry in north-east Wales. In my personal experience as a postwoman, I have seen how driving for productivity and efficiency is forcing us into unrealistic working hours. The Communication Workers Union successfully fought against franchising our brand and reduced wages for new starters, which would have created a two-tier workforce, but these wins keep getting attacked by the employer. As it stands, all new contracts are part-time, but you are expected to work full-time, which means the workforce do not get full holiday, pension entitlement or full sick pay, and cannot commit to another part-time job to ensure full-time employment. Privatisation, competitiveness and UK Government policies have pushed employment standards and wages to a new low and a race to the bottom. Give workers fair pay for fair work, and grow the economy that way. Diolch.

I call on the Deputy Minister for Social Partnership to reply to the debate—Hannah Blythyn.

Diolch, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I want to start by thanking my colleague and constituency neighbour Jack Sargeant for bringing this debate in the Senedd today. As someone who has spent the vast majority of her working life working for a better deal at work, it's absolutely something that I welcome, and I share your commitment to a better deal for workers. I want all workers in Wales to be treated fairly and with respect, as it should be. Also, congratulations to you and Sarah Murphy on becoming co-chairs of the Unite group in the Senedd here, following in the footsteps of not just me but also the Deputy Presiding Officer. 

I want to thank all Members who've contributed to this debate today, because these matters affect, as we've heard, the daily lives and livelihoods of people right across the length and breadth of Wales. And Jack Sargeant was right to talk about the example of Airbus, where it was really to pay tribute and a testament to what happens when the trade unions work together with the employers, and take a bold and brave decision. I know that there's a lot of credit to the work of Daz Reynolds and the team at Airbus in terms of doing that, and the work for us as a whole in taking that decision.

You will know that economic, social and environmental justice drives everything that we do as a Government, and the values of fair work and social partnership are central to that. Safe, secure and rewarding work is not just in the interest of workers but in the interest of employers, too. We know that a better deal for workers does not just make a difference in making workplaces better, it goes much further and is much more fundamental to the fabric of a stronger, better and fairer recovery and country. That is why this Welsh Government is committed to working towards fair work in Wales, working together in social partnership to make a lasting difference to lives and livelihoods.

Whilst employment rights, as we heard, remain reserved to the UK Government, we are committed to using every lever and power available to us to deliver fair work outcomes, using our social partnership approach and the power of the public purse to improve working practices, cultures and behaviours. The draft social partnership and public procurement Bill will put social partnership in Wales on a formal footing. It will strengthen socially responsible procurement, and it will place a social partnership duty on certain public bodies. And it will place a fair work duty on Welsh Ministers.

But, of course, the Bill, although a significant step forward for us, is not our only lever to effect change. I want this new Welsh Government to go full throttle in putting into action the ambitious policy agenda set out in the 'Fair Work Wales' report. And we've started that with a workforce rights and responsibilities campaign aimed at raising awareness of workplace rights and guiding to support. We also established a social care fair work forum and associated working groups, which seek to improve working conditions in social care, which, of course, will play an important role in putting into practice our pledge to pay social care workers the real living wage. Mike Hedges talked about the importance, so many years after introducing the minimum wage, of actually really pushing the real living wage—20 years after the campaign for a living wage actually started. For me, it's not a benchmark, it's a baseline, and a real living wage should be fitted around other terms and conditions, and the opportunity to progress in work. 

We've also established a national health and safety forum, which brings together a range of partners to improve the approach to health and safety at work, particularly in the context of the COVID pandemic. This Government will also push for the underfunded Health and Safety Executive to be devolved in a way that will work for workers and workplaces in Wales. 

Deputy Presiding Officer, we're working in support of the fair work floor in relation to statutory rights and protections, and we're striving to raise the fair work ceiling in terms of moving above and beyond legal minimums. In supporting the fair work floor, we are pressing the UK Government to safeguard against the regression on workers' rights, and to call for enhancement in certain areas, raising knowledge and awareness of workers' rights and avenues of support, advice and redress where rights have not been adhered to, and reinvigorating and reinforcing the Welsh Government's code of practice on ethical employment of supply chains, and improving its impact. 

When looking at the fair work ceiling, we are using the public purse to encourage good practice and discourage poor practice, ensuring the Welsh public sector acts as a leader and a role model for the behaviours and practice we want to see in others and, importantly, improving access to trade unions and encouraging an extension of collective bargaining. 

We've heard a lot today about fire-and-rehire—that pernicious practice that needs to be legislated against. The UK Government needs to stand by the undertaking that it's given to retain workers' rights and we will continue to hold them to account, because we know that a race to the bottom on workers' rights is not in the interest of workers, business or the broader economy. You know, fire-and-rehire came to the fore in the public conscience through the GMB campaign at British Gas and then the Unite campaign at British Airways, and the reality really needs to match the rhetoric from the UK Government on practices like this; simply asking the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service to resolve and produce fresh guidance, as they've done, is not going far enough to protect workers from such actions.

By contrast, we know that the best employers provide fair work and recognise the benefits to them of doing so. It's those behaviours that, here in Wales, we want to take root and spread so that we build back better, stronger and fairer. We'll work with our employers and trade unions to champion fair work and the benefits of social partnership, delivering a fair deal for workers and making the workplace a better place for all. Diolch. 

Thank you, Deputy Minister.