Labour Research August 2022

Union news

Social partnership


The Welsh government has beefed up the nation’s social partnership model, in which unions and employers have a role in policy decisions.


According to Wales TUC general secretary Shavanah Taj, the recently published Social Partnership and Public Procurement Bill “provides a statutory basis for what has become a distinct way of working in Wales — bringing workers into the policy-making fold so that their interests are not eclipsed by that of their much wealthier employers.”


The government will establish a Social Partnership Council — consisting of an equal number of union, employer and government representatives — to guide this process at a national level.