Oral Answers to Questions

John Cooper Excerpts

Thursday 31st October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Justin Madders]

My hon. Friend is right to say that there is plenty of evidence worldwide that collective bargaining improves terms and conditions and the overall vitality of the economy, but we must start somewhere. About 5% of the entire working population are employed in adult social care, and with a 25% turnover rate and rampant abuse of zero-hours contracts and the minimum wage laws, we felt that that sector needed the most attention first. We must make a concerted effort to drive up working conditions, because those who work in that area have been undervalued and underappreciated for far too long, and that has to change. We must focus on getting it right in adult social care, and we will see where that takes us.

[John Cooper (Dumfries and Galloway) (Con)]

Undoubtedly, Government legislation is empowering the unions—we saw that this week when the Secretary of State for Scotland was unable to meet CBI Scotland, an important body, because he could not enter his own building because of a picket line. We read in the papers this morning that ASLEF, a rail union, insists on using fax machines and will not allow its members to use email. How is that helping collective bargaining?

[Justin Madders]

I have to educate the hon. Member on what trade unions do. ASLEF is not a union in the adult social care sector, which is what we are talking about here. We want to work on a tripartite basis—business and workers, together with the Government—to get terms and conditions right. Given that we had the lowest increase in living standards on record under the Conservative Government, I would have thought that he would want to support that too.