RICHARD LEONARD has given his “wholehearted endorsement” to labour law reforms which would give workers a “Nae Pasaran” right to solidarity action.

The Scottish Labour leader, who will address trade unionists at the three-day gathering today, has backed the Charter of Workers’ Rights for Scotland, a new document published by the Institute of Employment Rights (IER) calling for a massive shake-up of Scottish workplaces.

It calls for the Scottish government to establish a new position of labour secretary and says the devolved administration should use “coercive powers” to shift the balance of labour laws in favour of workers.

It favours lifting the “total ban on all forms of solidarity action” in British law “so that workers in Scotland are free again to register their support for workers fighting brutal regimes overseas.”

Last year acclaimed documentary Nae Pasaran told the story of Scottish Rolls-Royce workers who defied bosses in the 1970s and refused to repair jet engines for Augusto Pinochet’s air force in Chile.

The charter also calls for union recognition without the need for a ballot, new rights on wages, working time and family responsibilities and expanded safety protections.

Mr Leonard said: “This is an important step forward and I wholeheartedly endorse the charter. It reflects our view of the proactive role that a Scottish government could play in promoting employment rights.”

Most labour law provisions are dealt with at Westminster rather than at Holyrood, but the IER argues that the Scottish Parliament and its ministers should use “coercive powers available to the devolved parliaments in the form of contracts and licences.”

Professor Ruth Dukes, a co-author of the charter, said it “aims to demonstrate how workers’ rights can be used to create fair, secure, democratic and productive conditions of work that will diminish inequality and benefit the national economy.”

The charter will formally be launched at a Scottish TUC fringe meeting on Tuesday. IER Scotland co-ordinator Jane Carolan said: “In a world where even Theresa May mentions trade union rights, Scottish trade unions need to be very clear to the Scottish government asserting what we mean by workers’ rights, and demanding effective means by which government commitments and the obligations of employers are to be monitored and enforced.”

The document is among several proposals which will be debated in Dundee this week. A motion from the CWU due to be heard tomorrow calls for “the establishment of a publicly owned Post Bank” to both reinforce the threatened network of Crown Post Offices and transform Britain’s banking system.

Mr Leonard, a former GMB official, has made workers’ rights a key plank of his policy agenda since taking over the Scottish Labour leadership in 2017. Writing exclusively in tomorrow’s Morning Star, he argues: “A drive to raise wages and tackle unemployment is necessary but not sufficient. Because a feeling of powerlessness has set in too.

“Economic power is increasingly concentrated in fewer hands. With the result that working people’s lives are dominated by decisions over which they have no control. Work becomes increasingly dehumanised and alienation is rife.”

Scottish Labour has pledged to introduce a new right for employees to buy out their bosses. New analysis published by his party shows that worker-owned companies are turning over more than 50 per cent more cash than the average business.

The average turnover of a Scottish business with at least five employees was £5.66 million in 2017. But among Scotland’s small number of employee-owned businesses, turnover averaged out at approximately £9.4m per business.