Minister Sets Out Public Service Workforce Green Paper
9 May 2012 01:32 PM
A Welsh Government Green Paper seeking views on proposals to legislate in relation to issues affecting the public service workforce in Wales goes out to consultation.
Local Government and Communities Minister Carl Sargeant said that in the current climate of financial difficulty, proposals within the Green Paper aim to secure public service workforce expertise and deliver a fair deal for public service workers.
"The proposals will ensure a mechanism to provide consistency and better workforce planning across the whole of the Welsh public service," he said.
"They also aim to strengthen current arrangements between the Welsh Government and other devolved public bodies in relation to the public service workforce."
The three key proposals for legislation are:
- To provide Welsh Ministers with powers to issue statutory guidance on matters affecting the devolved public service workforce;
- To place a duty on devolved public service organisations to promote and apply partnership working as it affects workforce matters and to collaborate on workforce matters;
- To apply a code of practice to devolved public service organisations in relation to protecting the terms and conditions of workers
Carl Sargeant added:
"The Welsh Government has a clear agenda in relation to public services: an agenda of continual improvement aimed at better services for the citizen and protecting the jobs of our public sector workers.
"The public service workforce will play a critical role in our ambitions for this improvement. We aim to achieve this through partnership between the Welsh Government and other devolved public bodies and crucially, partnership between employers and employees.
"As well as giving us an opportunity to put the public service workforce on a proper statutory footing these proposals are about cementing the partnership approach which the Welsh Government has been advocating for years.
"If we are to truly develop an approach to public services which is rooted Wales-wide then better partnership working and greater collaboration will be a core element for delivering greater workforce mobility."
Related Links