Fair Work First: guidance

Confirming and evidencing an organisation’s Fair Work First commitment

A streamlined process has been introduced for confirming and evidencing an organisation’s Fair Work First commitment, which both provides appropriate assurance for funders and reduces bureaucracy for all. This is set out below and a confirmation template is provided in supporting documents to this guidance, which funders may wish to use.

The potential grant recipient is to produce the appropriate factual evidence that it is meeting the real Living Wage and effective voice conditions and confirmation of its commitment to working towards the remaining five desirable Fair Work First criteria, in order to satisfy the funder of compliance.

The evidence is to be provided by the potential grant recipient to the funder before payment of funds, and is as follows:

• Real Living Wage condition
  • relevant evidence that the real Living Wage condition is being met (as such evidence should be factual, no confirmation from trade union/workers’ representative(s) is required);
  • where an exception to meeting the real Living Wage condition has been approved, evidence it is meeting the condition for the rest of its workforce and outline of the action the organisation will take towards meeting this going forward.
  • where the cumulative value of grant funding received by an organisation from an individual funder over a single financial year is below £100,000 self-declaration is sufficient.
• Effective voice condition
  • potential grant recipient to provide evidence that it is meeting the effective voice condition (confirmation from trade union/workers’ representative(s) is required).
• Desirable Fair Work First criteria
  • potential grant recipient to provide a brief high level factual overview of its commitment to working towards these remaining five desirable criteria (confirmation from trade union/workers’ representative(s) is required).

Further detail on the evidence requirements for the real Living Wage and effective voice conditions can be found in Annex B of this guidance.

In order that the grant application can progress, factual evidence for effective voice must be signed off by the recognised trade union(s), or other appropriate workers’ representative where there is no union recognition. The grant applicant should also confirm its commitment to the five remaining desirable criteria, and this should be signed off by the recognised trade union(s) or other appropriate workers’ representative. This can be done using the organisation’s confirmation template or other appropriate form used by the funder for this purpose, indicating that the information provided is accurate.

Employers will often have their own structures with their recognised trade unions that facilitate agreements. Where these exist, they should be used for confirming Fair Work First requirements and commitments. At a minimum employers should make their best efforts to ensure that all recognised trade unions have agreed the confirmation and at least one recognised union must sign in all instances.

Confirmation of compliance and commitments should be concerned with the substantive evidence in relation to the Fair Work First criteria. Wider employment and industrial relations issues within the grant recipient organisation should be dealt with separate to consideration of Fair Work First requirements in any grant. Employers should not use this confirmation to prevent further engagement and consultation on Fair Work and other workplace issues.

Many jobs, wages and deliverables are dependent on grants and it is important that the administrative process for evidencing the real Living Wage and effective voice conditions does not unnecessarily become a barrier to accessing such funding. Consultations and negotiations between employers and trade unions can take time and provided a recognition agreement is in place this should be taken as sufficient evidence of effective voice at a collective level.