Fair Work: action plan

14. The Collaborative Economy

In January 2018, the Scottish Government's Expert Advisory Panel on the Collaborative Economy reported its findings, recommending a number of actions for Scotland to take advantage of the growing use of digital, collaborative platforms and to tackle some of the challenges that they pose to specific sectors. The Expert Panel made recommendations aimed at improving the quality of employment opportunities in the collaborative economy.

In June 2018, the Scottish Government published its response to the Expert Panel's Report, outlining how we will build on our current actions in areas such as peer to peer accommodation, workers' rights, crowd-funding, regulation and consumer protection to fulfil our ambitions for Scotland. In terms of worker protections, the Scottish Government will:

• Engage with the Fair Work Convention, trade unions and platform hosts to help employers in the collaborative economy understand and embed the dimensions of Fair Work.
• Work collaboratively with trade unions and partners to develop online guidance for workers seeking to gain clear and accurate information about their employment status, protections and rights.
• Ensure that the views of the Scottish Government and the Expert Panel are given appropriate consideration by the UK Government as it progresses changes to employment law following the publication of the Good Work Plan.

Note: The Fair Work Employer Support Tool was launched on 29 January 2021 to enable employers to self-assess their fair work practices and access support to strengthen their approaches. The tool currently aims to support small and medium-sized enterprises and will be further developed to support employers in the collaborative economy.