Fair Work First: guidance

How the guidance should be used

This guidance is designed to support grant recipients to meet the minimum standards defined by the Fair Work First criteria and to encourage them to progress on a more ambitious journey through continuous improvement in Fair Work.

It should be used in conjunction with other relevant guidance, such as:

• Grant policy guidance and information provided as part of their respective application and evaluation processes;
• Strategic guidance provided to Scotland’s public bodies by Scottish Ministers and framework/funding agreements between Scottish Ministers and such bodies;
• The Scottish Public Finance Manual.

For details on Fair Work First in public procurement, please refer to the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014: statutory guidance; Best Practice Guidance and Scottish Procurement Policy Notes.

There are two elements to the guidance on Fair Work First in public sector grants:

• the mandatory requirement to pay at least the real Living Wage and provide appropriate channels for effective voice (Fair Work First grant conditionality) and
• the desirable Fair Work First criteria that grant applicants/recipients are encouraged to adopt

The ‘What it means in practice’ sections of this guidance (Annex A) provides extensive positive examples of how employers can adopt the Fair Work First criteria.

Employers are also encouraged to use the Fair Work Employer Support Tool to assess their current fair work practices and access support to enable them to strengthen their approach where appropriate. Similarly, employers should encourage their workers to use the Fair Work Convention’s online Self-Assessment Tool to assess their own experience of Fair Work and be willing to engage with workers and unions in responding to the findings of these assessment tools.

The guidance can be used by the respective stakeholders as follows:

Grant funders^[1] should use the guidance to:

• consider how the Fair Work First criteria, including the real Living Wage and effective voice conditions, apply to a grant, consistent with the context in which they can be applied;
• design application forms/proposal templates that enable them to confirm an applicant’s compliance with the two mandatory criteria and its commitment to the remaining five desirable Fair Work First criteria
• evaluate a grant applicant‘s response to the two mandatory criteria and consider its commitment to the remaining five desirable Fair Work First criteria contained in the application/proposal; and verify these;
• engage with a grant recipient to agree relevant milestones and outcomes for delivering its Fair Work First commitments;
• understand progress being made towards employers’ Fair Work First commitments as part of grant management arrangements.

Grant applicants / recipients should use the guidance to:

• inform their organisation’s approach for applying Fair Work First criteria within the organisation;
• provide appropriate evidence at the grant application stage confirming they are meeting the real Living Wage and effective voice conditions, and their commitment to the remaining five desirable Fair Work First criteria;
• monitor compliance with the two conditions and related milestones in relation to its commitment to the remaining five desirable Fair Work First criteria as part of grant management arrangements;
• consider further action which could be taken to enhance their organisation‘s broader Fair Work approach.

Funding for public bodies and other public sector partners

Public bodies and other public sector partners have a dual role to play in implementing Fair Work First: as employers, and as the administrators of public funding for delivering devolved public services.

• Scottish Government sponsorship / funding leads should use the guidance as follows, working within relevant legislation and/or existing funding relationships to:
  • consider how Fair Work First applies to the public body/public sector partner;
  • agree with the body/partner what their Fair Work First priorities will be;
  • be assured, for discretionary grants, that the body/partner is meeting the requirement to pay at least the real Living Wage and provide appropriate effective workers‘ voice channels;
  • be assured by evidence that the body/partner is applying Fair Work First to third party organisations;
  • understand progress being made towards the body’s Fair Work First commitments as part of the agreed monitoring and reporting arrangements.
• Public bodies and other public sector partners should use the guidance to:
  • identify their organisation’s Fair Work First priorities;
  • assure the sponsorship team/funder that they are meeting the requirement to pay at least the real Living Wage and provide effective workers‘ voice;
  • monitor and provide evidence of progress towards meeting the Fair Work First criteria as part of sponsorship/funding arrangements;
  • consider further action the organisation could take to enhance their broader Fair Work approach;
  • apply Fair Work First, including the real Living Wage and effective workers’ voice conditions to any grants they award, and encourage such grant recipients to also make progress towards meeting the remaining five desirable Fair Work First criteria.