A NEW industrial relations body made up of trade unions and employers is among 30 recommendations of a major report on improving workplace relations and productivity.
The Scottish Government has welcomed the report produced by an independent group led by former Government minister Jim Mather.
Recommendations also include bringing forward legislation to ensure worker representation on the boards of public sector bodies.
It further suggests assigning responsibility for industrial relations to a Cabinet minister, and using procurement powers to encourage "progressive practices" such as paying the living wage in the private and third sectors.
Youth and Women's Employment Secretary Angela Constance said: "Scotland has had a consistently strong trade union voice dating back decades, something we should be very proud of. I want to see that voice enhanced with the trade union movement continuing to be a key contributor to Scotland's economic success."
Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser questioned the proposal to establish a new industrial relations body.
He said: "The review proposes the establishment of a new independent body to lead joint work by unions, employers and government. While this may have some merit, do we really need another quango to take this forward?"
Grahame Smith, general secretary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress and a member of the Working Together review group, said: "I hope the findings dispel some of the myths about the role of unions and the nature of industrial relations in Scotland and will provoke action by government, employers and unions that will develop and extend the considerable amount of good practice that already exists."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article