Our views on the draft social partnership bill

The ability of legislation on social partnership alone may not be enough to improve pay and working conditions.

The Bevan Foundation was pleased to respond to the Welsh Government’s consultation on its Draft Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Bill.Whilst there is much to welcome in the new Draft Bill, the Bevan Foundation does have some concerns about how the Bill overlooks certain economic sectors and a wider range of factors that concern ‘fair work’.

We were therefore grateful for the opportunity to share these and to share some of our ideas about what can be done to improve the Welsh Government’s approach including:

• We would urge the Welsh Government to recognise that there are other factors that determine ‘fair work’ including the nature and supply of other jobs in the local labour market, the skills and qualifications of the workforce, the UK regulatory context, and the ownership and business models of employers.
• On social partnership our biggest concern is that by focusing on public bodies, the Bill overlooks the economic sectors with the worst terms and conditions e.g. retail, accommodation and food service and arts and culture sectors.
• We agree with the broad definition of fair work in the Fair Work Commission’s report. Within that, we would prioritise:
  • Increasing health and safety at work – nobody should be killed, injured or harmed by doing their job.
  • Increasing the number of people paid at or above the real Living Wage, and enforcing the payment of statutory minimum wages – nobody should work yet still not have enough to live on.
  • Improving job security and stability – we have found that zero- or variable hours contracts damage workers’ health, personal finances and daily lives, as well as giving managers additional tools with which to penalise or reward selected employees.
• We are concerned that the focus on procurement to deliver fair work will not achieve the desired outcomes

Format:  PDF (133kb)

Language: English 

Pages:  3

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