Received from: Unison
Congress notes the steps taken by the government towards delivering on the Make Work Pay commitments on insourcing, the two-tier code and public interest test.
While recognising the scale of challenge involved in turning back decades of orthodoxy, Congress is concerned that the weakness of measures brought forward so far threatens to de-rail what should be a major means of providing both better services and increasing the number of decent, secure union jobs across our communities.
The forthcoming two-tier code and the public interest test will not apply to wholly owned subsidiaries, despite an explicit manifesto commitment. This means that many across the public sector, working for subsidiary companies and local authority trading companies, will not be protected and that incentives will remain for public sector organisations to make savings off the back of the inferior terms and conditions of outsourced workers.
In addition, the public interest test, as published in June, is only guidance and, along with the requirement for contracting authorities to develop insourcing strategies, will only apply to larger central government contracts – not the wider public sector.
Congress therefore agrees to campaign for the government to act with urgency to:
i. deliver a strategy and timetable for delivery of the biggest wave of insourcing in a generation
ii. ensure that the government insourcing agenda is public sector wide – not just related to large central government contracts
iii. bring forward a new procurement bill that will address the issues above and give the public interest legislative teeth.
UNISON
AMENDMENT
Add:
“iv. prohibit the use of wholly owned subsidiary companies to employ staff as a mechanism to avoid pension obligations and other employment terms and conditions (as recommended by the UK House of Commons Education Select Committee to prevent universities denying staff access to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme)”
University and College Union