MIKE HEDGES AM WELCOMES UPDATE ON FAIR WROK
COMMISSION.
Mike Hedges said… ‘I welcome this update on a very
important piece of work for the Welsh Government. It is right that we develop a
work force which is well trained and motivated; we must also make sure that the
work force is free from exploitation. Poor work practices must be rooted out
and this commission sets Wales on the road to leading the way in the UK.’
In April the
First Minister announced his intention to take steps to establish a Fair Work
Commission; a small independent panel of experts to take forward the initial
work of the Fair Work Board which was to scope the available evidence and key
practices impacting on Fair Work.
As chair of the
Fair Work Board I am very grateful to the Board, whose members were drawn from
the tripartite Social Partner Strategy Group: the Wales TUC, the CBI and the
FSB and included Cerys Furlong, Chief Executive of Chwarae Teg for their
initial contributions.
The Fair Work
Board provided me with a forum for early dialogue on the development of Fair
Work. It made good initial progress in identifying the evidence gaps and the
levers currently available to Welsh Government to promote and drive Fair Work
across Wales and was a source of good advice in helping to test our initial
thinking.
As the Minister
responsible for Fair Work I am very pleased to announce that the Fair Work
Commission, a Welsh Government Ministerial body, will be chaired by Professor
Linda Dickens MBE, Emeritus Professor of Industrial Relations at the
University of Warwick.
A senior academic with an excellent
national and international reputation in the field of employment relations, Linda
has a demonstrable track record in the practical application of her knowledge
and expertise across the public and private sectors, including through a number
of public appointments.
An experienced
labour disputes arbitrator, mediator and inquiry chair, Linda was until
recently a Deputy Chair of the Central Arbitration Committee and served on the
Council of ACAS. Her current appointments include non-Executive Board Member of
the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority.
Linda will be
joined by:
Sharanne
Basham-Pyke, Director
of Shad Consultancy Ltd providing professional business advice and change
management to the private, public and third sectors. She also is CEO of
Talkflow a start-up software business and has a portfolio career as a Business
Angel to a number of small businesses with a common theme – the desire to grow.
Sharanne’s background is the corporate world, joining BT in 1999 from a
background in management consultancy.
Edmund
Heery,
originally from Liverpool was educated at the universities of Cambridge and
Essex and the London School of Economics. Since 1996 he has been Professor of
Employment Relations at Cardiff Business School. Professor Heery is an
expert on work and employment in the UK and has published research on trade unions,
employers’ organizations and the role of civil society in promoting fairness of
work. His most recent research has examined the UK’s voluntary Living Wage,
including its adoption within Wales.
Sarah
Veale CBE retired as Head of Equality and
Employment Rights at the TUC in 2015. At the TUC Sarah was responsible for the
organisation’s work on equality and trade union and employment
rights. Until January 2017 she was a Board member at the Equality
and Human Rights Commission. She is a member of the Regulatory Policy
Committee, which provides independent assessment of Government regulatory and
de-regulatory proposals. Sarah is a non-Executive Director of the United
Kingdom Accreditation Service. She is a visiting fellow at the Greenwich
University Business School and a Vice Chair of the Equality and Diversity
Forum. Sarah is a Vice President of the Chartered Institute of Environmental
Health. In the past Sarah was a member of the ACAS Council and the HSE Board.
Sarah was awarded the CBE in 2006 for services to diversity. In 2012 Sarah was
awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Laws by Oxford Brookes University.
The Commission
will be supported by Professor Alan Felstead as the Commission’s Independent
Expert Adviser. Professor Felstead is Research Professor at the School of
Social Sciences, Cardiff University. His research focuses on skills,
training and various aspects of job quality. He has generated research income
of £7.3 million and has produced over 200 publications. Based on research
evidence he has given independent expert advice to government departments such
as the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and agencies
such as the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, the Government Office for
Science, and the Office for National Statistics.
