Public Services and Procurement (Workers' Rights) Bill 2017

Public bill · Private Member · Introduced

Public bodies would have to take workers’ rights into account when choosing suppliers and awarding contracts, rather than letting low pay or poor conditions be a competitive advantage. For smaller contracts, any bidder with recent breaches of employment law, failure to follow labour rulings or collective agreements, refusal to recognise unions, use of zero-hours or precarious hours contracts, or problematic subcontracting could be excluded; for larger contracts, similar penalties would apply, and extra credit would go to firms that pay at least a living wage, recognise unions, avoid zero-hours work, and use stable contracts. It matters because it tries to use public spending to push up employment standards instead of driving them down.

Formal long title

Bill entitled an Act to remove wages and working conditions of employees from being used as elements of competition among bidders for public contracts; to resist any downward pressure in wage rates and workers' rights; to safeguard the highest minimum standards established nationally by law, arbitration or collective bargaining and for that purpose to specify particular considerations which will apply to the selection of tenderers and to specify particular considerations which will apply to the awarding of contracts to economic operators and to provide that different considerations may apply in respect of procurements whose value are either above or below the EU threshold and to provide for related matters

Last updated 2 May 2025