New social partnership bill puts workers at the heart of policy making in Wales

• The Social Partnership and Public Procurement Bill has been published today. It puts new duties on public bodies to engage with unions and sets up a Social Partnership Council for Wales.
• Union body welcomes the legislation as a landmark step to strengthen the role of workers’ voice in government.

Trades unions in Wales are welcoming new legislation published by Welsh Government today [7^th June 2022] to strengthen social partnership working in Wales.

Social partnership is a form of partnership working between the representatives of employers and workers through their representative organisations – employer organisations and trade unions – with government.

The legislation will put a duty on public bodies to engage with trade unions when they are setting out what they will do to comply with the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2016. It also creates a Social Partnership Council to advise Welsh Government on this, and Socially Responsible Procurement Duties so that procurement spend helps to deliver on the Well-being Goals and Fair Work vision. 

Shavanah Taj, Wales TUC General Secretary, said: “This legislation is a landmark step by Welsh Government. It recognises the role which social partnership has already played – especially in the pandemic – and builds on it to create a coherent and ambitious vision for social partnership throughout the devolved public sector.

“Social partnership delivers for workers. It means that policymakers understand workers’ interests and they have a role in shaping the decisions which impact them. This leads to outcomes like mandatory covid risk assessments and the Real Living Wage for social care workers, and we hope it will deliver much more once this legislation has passed.

“The Bill lays the foundations for workers to be at the table when key decisions are being taken about the communities they live and work in. It’s a major step and we look forward to working with Welsh Government to make this a reality across Wales.”