The Act – Section by Section Part 2 – Fire and Rescue Services Chapter 9 – Employment Section 49 – Statutory negotiation arrangements
71.This section provides the Scottish Ministers with power to establish negotiating machinery in respect of the conditions of service under which employees of relevant authorities work. The power allows the Scottish Ministers to determine the number, composition and chair of such a negotiating body or bodies.
72.Subsection (2) requires that any such body include representatives of employers and employees (which may include trade unions (as defined in section 1 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992)) and an independent chair.
73.Subsections (5), (6) and (7) would allow the statutory body to make arrangements for some conditions of service to be negotiated locally either in their entirety or within nationally agreed parameters. Subsection (8) makes an agreement between a relevant authority and employees of a particular type a legally enforceable contract; but the agreement is only enforceable where it was made by means of the statutory negotiation body which contained representatives of employees of that type, or if made in accordance with the local negotiation arrangements described in section 49(5) to (7).