Welsh language legal bid starts

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Ann Beynon from BT says the telecom company would prefer Welsh language services to remain voluntary.

The Welsh Assembly Government's bid for more powers to make laws to promote the Welsh language has been published.

The legislative competence order (LCO) includes the right to require some private companies to use the language, including energy and telecoms firms.

But some MPs are expected to resist the idea that using Welsh could become a legal requirement for private firms.

This LCO is one of the key elements of the One Wales agreement between the coalition parties - Plaid and Labour.

Lord Elis-Thomas, the assembly presiding officer, said it was a "hugely significant day" for the language and would, if approved, mean laws on the Welsh language would be made in Wales in future.

The LCO is the first stage in passing a Welsh law (measure) and seeks to give the assembly government more powers over the Welsh language.

PRIVATE COMPANIES WHICH COULD BE AFFECTED Gas, water, or electricity services Sewerage services Postal service and post offices Telecom services Education, training, or career guidance Railway services Services to develop or award education or vocations qualifications Betsan Powys blog on powers over the language

If the LCO is approved the assembly government will introduce a measure (Welsh law) on the matter.

Before it is approved it has to be scrutinised by both the Welsh assembly and Westminster.

Royal approval for the LCO is then needed.

The process of drawing it up has taken a year longer than planned.

The LCO would allow the assembly government to potentially bring a wide range of organisations under the provisions of the Welsh Language Act 1993.

The private companies which could be compelled to treat Welsh and English equally include gas, water and electricity services, telecommunication services - including mobile phone companies - and railway operators.

BT has already called for clarification, saying it would prefer the existing voluntary system to continue and could not see the benefits of legislation.

The move could also mean any company which provides services to the public under an agreement with a public authority, like a contract with the assembly government or council, could be compelled to provide those services bilingually.

Several Labour MPs have privately expressed scepticism about extending the scope of current language legislation to the private sector - a concern which has been intensified by the current economic climate.

The LCO also contains what appears to amount to a de facto opt out for Whitehall departments.

In order for duties on the Welsh language to be "conferred or imposed" by any future assembly measure, the LCO specifies that a Secretary of State for the relevant department must consent in advance, and even then, no criminal offences (presumably for breaches) can ever be enforced against "ministers of the Crown".

Assembly presiding officer Lord Elis Thomas told the BBC Politics Show the bid for powers on the language was hugely important.

Welsh Secretary Paul Murphy has indicated he expects changes to be made to the LCO before it is finally passed but any serious weakening of the order would cause tension between Cardiff Bay and Westminster.

Any changes may also cause problems between the two coalition partners in the Welsh assembly.

Wildcat walkout action continues

ENERGY WORKERS' PROTESTS 1. Grangemouth oil refinery, Central Scotland 2. Scottish Power's Longannet power station, Fife 3. Scottish Power's Cockenzie power station, East Lothian 4. Shell gas processing plant, St Fergus, Aberdeenshire 5. British Energy power station, Torness, East Lothian 6. Mossmorran chemical plant, Fife 7. Npower Aberthaw power station, south Wales 8. South Hook natural gas terminal, Milton Haven, Pembrokeshire 9. ICI chemical refinery at Wilton, Teesside 10. Corus steel plant near Redcar, Teeside 11. Scottish & Southern's Fiddler's Ferry power station, Cheshire 12. AES Kilroot power station, County Antrim 13. Marchwood power station, Hampshire Where are protests taking place?

Workers at Longannet power station are to continue wildcat strike action for a further 24 hours as the row over the use of foreign contractors escalates.

Unions in Scotland are holding mass meetings with about 2,500 workers.

Thousands of workers across the UK staged unofficial walkouts on Friday over the use of foreign staff at a Lincolnshire refinery.

In Scotland, the Ineos oil plant at Grangemouth and power stations at Longannet and Cockenzie were affected.

Contractors at Longannet voted to stay out on strike for 24 hours and return to hold another mass meeting at 0730 GMT on Tuesday.

Bobby Buirds of the Unite union warned that peace could be a distant prospect.

He said: "I can't say one way or the other whether there's going to be further action and if the lads believe things are developing to their benefit, there might be a change of heart but I don't see that at the moment."

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the wildcat strikes were "not defensible".

And Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy called on unions not to "escalate" the dispute.

The walkouts began after bosses at the Lindsey oil refinery brought in Italian and Portuguese contractors.

Unions said the jobs should have gone to British workers.

About 300 workers from the Ineos oil refinery at Grangemouth joined the protest on Friday.

They were followed by about 500 from the power station at Longannet in Fife and about 100 from Cockenzie power station in East Lothian.

Scottish Power said the walkout did not affect operations at either of the sites and that it was meeting senior members of all contractors to resolve the situation as quickly as possible.

Shell said about 180 contractors at the St Fergus gas terminal at Peterhead had stopped work, while at British Energy's Torness facility, about 80 workers have downed tools.

According to ExxonMobil, 40 workers contracted to Deborah Services Limited (DSL) have gone on strike at its ethylene plant at Mossmorran in Fife, along with colleagues at the Shell plant at Mossmorran.

Brown and Chinese PM hold talks

The leaders are to discuss open markets and global financial reform

Prime Minister Gordon Brown is to hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao as the leader's visit to the UK draws to a close.

The two heads of state will meet at Downing Street to discuss ways of handling the global economic downturn and how to boost trade.

The first two days of Mr Wen's three-day UK visit were met by protests over human-rights abuses in China and Tibet.

Five people were arrested on Sunday and more protests are expected.

The five protesters were arrested after trying to approach Mr Wen, who was booed as he travelled around London.

Human rights

Several people vaulted barriers as Mr Wen arrived outside the Chinese Embassy in London amid a noisy demonstration.

However he was also greeted by supporters as he toured Chinatown and attended a dinner at the Natural History Museum.

Mr Wen also met Conservative leader David Cameron for 45 minutes on Sunday to talk about topics including the economic crisis and fighting climate change.

Mr Cameron raised human rights issues with the Chinese leader and emphasised the importance of "greater participation" in Beijing's political process.

Mr Wen's European tour includes visits to Germany, Spain, and Brussels.

Mass meetings on wildcat walkouts

ENERGY WORKERS' PROTESTS 1. Grangemouth oil refinery, Central Scotland 2. Scottish Power's Longannet power station, Fife 3. Scottish Power's Cockenzie power station, East Lothian 4. Shell gas processing plant, St Fergus, Aberdeenshire 5. British Energy power station, Torness, East Lothian 6. Mossmorran chemical plant, Fife 7. Npower Aberthaw power station, south Wales 8. South Hook natural gas terminal, Milton Haven, Pembrokeshire 9. ICI chemical refinery at Wilton, Teesside 10. Corus steel plant near Redcar, Teeside 11. Scottish & Southern's Fiddler's Ferry power station, Cheshire 12. AES Kilroot power station, County Antrim 13. Marchwood power station, Hampshire Where are protests taking place?

Union leaders in Scotland expect about 2,500 workers to attend mass meetings later as part of the continuing dispute over the use of foreign workers.

Thousands of workers across the UK staged unofficial walkouts on Friday over the use of foreign staff at a Lincolnshire refinery.

In Scotland, the Ineos oil plant at Grangemouth and power stations at Longannet and Cockenzie were affected.

Bobby Buirds of the Unite union warned that peace could be a distant prospect.

He said: "I can't say one way or the other whether there's going to be further action and if the lads believe things are developing to their benefit, there might be a change of heart but I don't see that at the moment."

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the wildcat strikes were "not defensible".

And Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy called on unions not to "escalate" the dispute.

The walkouts began after bosses at the Lindsey oil refinery brought in Italian and Portuguese contractors.

Unions said the jobs should have gone to British workers.

About 700 workers from the Ineos oil refinery at Grangemouth joined the protest on Friday.

They were followed by about 500 from the power station at Longannet in Fife and about 100 from Cockenzie power station in East Lothian.

Scottish Power said the walkout did not affect operations at either of the sites and that it was meeting senior members of all contractors to resolve the situation as quickly as possible.

Shell said about 180 contractors at the St Fergus gas terminal at Peterhead had stopped work, while at British Energy's Torness facility, about 80 workers have downed tools.

According to ExxonMobil, 40 workers contracted to Deborah Services Limited (DSL) have gone on strike at its ethylene plant at Mossmorran in Fife, along with colleagues at the Shell plant at Mossmorran.

Talks due over refinery strikes

Workers are angry at the use of foreign labour

Talks between both sides in the dispute over foreign workers at the Lyndsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire will begin on Monday morning, the BBC has learnt.

The news comes as Business Secretary Lord Mandelson urged workers planning to take "sympathy strike" action on Monday to call off their protests.

The government has also said it might challenge EU law to stop cheap foreign labour "undercutting" British workers.

It said European Court of Justice rulings had "undermined" protections.

The developments come in the wake of wildcat strikes across the UK over the use of foreign labour at a Total-owned oil refinery.

Changing EU law would need the agreement of other member states and could take years to get through and the Lib Dems warned challenging EU labour laws would be a "huge, self-defeating step too far".

Discrimination claim

Speaking on BBC One's Andrew Marr show, Health Secretary Alan Johnson, a former trade union leader, said: "If workers are being brought across here on worse terms and conditions to actually get jobs in front of British workers, on the basis of dumbing down the terms and conditions, that would be wrong and I can understand the anger about that."

He said both the government and trade unions strongly backed EU laws on the free movement of labour but that some of the protections in EU law may have been "undermined" by recent judgements in the European Court of Justice.

Hundreds walked out last week in a series of strikes around the UK in protest at the use of Italian and Portuguese labour at the Lindsey refinery.

Mr Brown says the government will help workers facing redundancy

There is concern industrial action could flare up again this week.

Contractors at nuclear power sites in Sellafield in Cumbria and Heysham in Lancashire, are due to decide whether to join the unofficial walkouts.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown told BBC One's Politics show he understood workers' fears over jobs, but said walkouts were "not the right thing to do".

Lord Mandelson said he hoped the strikes would be called off after Total issued a statement maintaining that firms from the UK were not barred from bidding for subcontracts.

The firm said it sub-contracted "on a fair and non-discriminatory basis" and that wage rates were the same as for equivalent jobs on site.

Labour laws

It would work with sub-contractors to ensure British workers were treated fairly, it added.

Lord Mandelson said arguments over rulings by the European Court were a separate issue.

The European Court of Justice has recently provided interpretations of the EU's Posted Workers Directive, which seeks to ensure companies cannot use foreign employees to get round domestic labour laws and pay rates.

Its rulings suggest a company should be free to decide how it is staffed and free to provide the services it wishes.

The most significant concerned a Latvian company, Laval, which had a contract to build schools in Sweden.

This form of contract clearly cannot go on Frank Field, Labour MP Brown criticises wildcat strikes

Laval claimed its freedom to use a Latvian workforce was being inhibited by attempts to block the move by Swedish unions. Its complaint was upheld.

Unions in the UK suggest this ruling has now enabled foreign companies to discriminate against British workers for jobs.

Former Labour minister Frank Field, co-chairman of a cross-party group on immigration, urged Mr Brown to push for a change in EU law to protect workers.

"This form of contract clearly cannot go on - where contracts are awarded and there's free movement of companies but those companies then restrict who can apply for those jobs.

"That clearly has got to change and tomorrow [Monday] I hope he'll make an announcement, saying that if that is the law, then the law in the European Union is actually going to be changed."

Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party, which campaigns for Britain's exit from the EU, said: "'British jobs for British workers' will only happen when Britain is run by and for Britons."

'Massive influx'

But the Lib Dems warned against any move by the government to exempt Britain from EU employment laws.

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said: "The truth is that twice as many British people live and work in the EU than EU citizens work here. Any attempt to ban EU citizens from jobs in Britain would be a massive own goal.

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"If every EU country followed suit, we would have to cope with a massive influx of British people who work overseas.

"Pulling out of the labour rules in Europe would be a huge, self-defeating step too far."

The Conservatives said they understood people's fears about unemployment but said strikes were "not the way forward".

Shadow foreign secretary William Hague said the Conservatives "strongly supported" the free movement of Labour within the EU.

But he said the British government was not doing enough to protect and create jobs, such as by offering tax rebates to firms who take on people who have been out of work for three months, as the Tories propose.

More peers face sleaze probe call

Peers' business dealings are under the microscope

The Liberal Democrats are calling for a police probe into sleaze allegations against four more members of the Lords.

Newspaper reports on Lord O'Neill, Lord Berkeley, Baroness Valentine and Baroness Coussins suggest they may have broken laws, the party claims.

All four deny any wrongdoing and say they declared their interests properly.

It comes as Justice Secretary Jack Straw said he was considering fast-tracking laws to expel peers who commit serious misdemeanours.

Currently the heaviest punishment peers who break the law, or the rules of the House, face is being ordered to apologise.

Mr Straw said he wanted to push through tougher sanctions before the next general election.

The move follows the row over claims in the Sunday Times four Labour peers were prepared to accept money to change legislation. They all deny any wrongdoing.

'Conflict of interest'

Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said he was writing to the police to ask them to investigate the activities of four further peers named in the Sunday Times.

The way in which the House of Lords has been brought into disrepute by allegations of cash for amendments makes an elected chamber urgent Chris Huhne, Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Peers face expulsion over sleaze

Labour peer Lord O'Neill of Clackmannan, the paid president of the Specialist Engineering Contractors' Group, tabled amendments to a bill on the construction industry. He later withdrew them to avoid any suggestion of a conflict of interest.

Labour peer Lord Berkeley, who reportedly earns about