Meeting of the Parliament 26 June 2025
I very much appreciate that. I look forward to engaging with the committee, particularly on its recently launched inquiry, and I look forward to constructive engagement with the convener. I emphasise my commitment to engaging constructively with the sector and all partners, including trade unions, to build consensus.
Members have made important contributions in the debate. With regard to what Martin Whitfield said about the fundamental purpose, reasoning and rationale of the legislation, we very much support that. As my colleague Richard Lochhead said, the legislation, in effect, puts on a statutory footing many of the policies that the Scottish Government has sought over the past decade, whether through its influence in its convening power or around conditionality and guidance on matters of public grants and procurement.
Although I take a different position from Murdo Fraser’s, he is right to raise the concerns that have been expressed by business. It is important that those concerns are raised, because it is a reminder to us all to implement legislation constructively and to communicate it clearly. That is vital, particularly given that much of what will follow from the bill will come through guidance.
The bill is important for us as a Parliament because, although responsibility over nearly all of employment law is in effect exclusively reserved to Westminster, it will have significant implications for the Scottish economy. The implications, I think, will be positive, but it is important that we engage constructively with the UK Government as it takes forward those provisions.
The Scottish Government’s position is that employment law should be devolved to the Scottish Parliament. I note that that position was previously supported by the Labour Party in a motion in 2023. Although we are now in a position of alignment in wanting to advance workers’ rights, we cannot take that for granted. British politics has always had one certainty, which is that Labour Governments have been followed by Governments of a different political hue. That has previously been the Conservatives, but it might not be the Conservatives next time; it may well be a party that is not aligned to the values that command majority support in this place with regard to workers’ rights.
That is why it is of paramount importance that we secure the devolution of employment rights to this Parliament, not only so that we can protect and embed those rights and guarantee them so long as there is a majority for them in this Parliament, but so that we can work constructively and proportionately with others to enhance those rights. Fair work is not only good for workers and not only a social and moral imperative; it is good for the economy. Ultimately, workers are also consumers, and the more security and fulfilment that they have in their work and the more disposable pay that they have, the better it is for businesses and for workers’ dignity.
It is also good commercially for businesses, because a workforce that is invested and that feels secure, fulfilled and respected will be more productive and will make more of a contribution to their employers. Those matters are of fundamental importance to the wider Scottish economy, and they underscore the importance of our constructive and collaborative approach with the UK Government in taking forward the LCM. It also underscores why the Government thinks that we should be looking to devolve employment powers to the Parliament in full, which would enable us to guarantee and protect those rights for all time, as long as there is majority support for that in the Parliament.
We would have liked the UK Government to go further on some measures, such as sick pay. It would also have been beneficial if we did not require the consent of the secretary of state on provisions relating to the social care negotiating body. Again, that underscores the importance of having employment law devolved to the Parliament.
As I said at the outset, we did not approach this with the intent of making the perfect the enemy of the good. We have worked constructively, and I believe that the LCM is a positive step forward on the road to the full devolution of employment law to the Parliament in due course.