Mark Drakeford attacks UK Government plan to repeal Welsh trade union law
Mark Drakeford: This Site really needs to get another image of him.
So much for devolution, eh?
Wales’ First Minister Mark Drakeford has launched a scathing attack on UK Government plans to scrap a law made in Wales on how trade unions operate in Welsh public services.
The law, brought in five years ago, banned employers from bringing in agency staff to replace striking public sector workers.
So the idea is to stop public sector workers striking in order to have enough pay to, you know, survive by making it possible for low-paid agency workers to be brought in instead. Is that right?
The UK Government’s plan would see it repeal the Trade Union Act (Wales) 2017, which applies to devolved Welsh public bodies and to trade unions in public services delivered by devolved Welsh public bodies including the Welsh NHS, local authorities, schools, fire services and Welsh Government sponsored bodies in Wales.
It says it wants trade union legislation to “apply equally across Great Britain”.
But isn’t it the point of devolution that the different countries can do things in different ways?
Mark Drakeford told the BBC Today programme that it is “absolutely disgraceful that the Westminster Government announced its intention to do this without a single word to the Welsh Government or Welsh Parliament which passed this legislation”.
“We discovered it tucked away in an explanatory memorandum, it just speaks volumes of the disrespectful agenda this Government has towards devolution.
“It’s nonsense, isn’t it, the idea you’ll find an agency worker capable of driving a train, an agency worker capable of operating a signal box. These are hugely safety critical roles we’re talking about. This is just a piece of nonsense dreamt up by a Tory Government.”
Source: Mark Drakeford launches furious attack on UK Government plans to repeal a law made in Wales
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Did you read the comments to the piece in walesonline, Mike? Utterly vomit-inducing. What’s wrong with such an apparently large proportion of humanity? Is the very word ‘humanity’ applicable?