Culture Fair Work Taskforce subgroup minutes: 16 January 2025

Attendees and apologies

• Briana Pegado, Independent Creative Practitioner
• Ayo Schwartz, National Theatre of Scotland
• Caroline Sewell, Musician’s Union
• Paul McManus, BECTU
• Mark Geddes, South of Scotland Enterprise
• Kathryn Welch, Culture Counts
• Alastair Evans, Creative Scotland
• Stephanie Colgan, Glasgow Life
• Lindsey Ross, Historic Environment Scotland

Additional Subgroup attendees

• Kerrie MacQueen, Cove Park
• Veronique Lapeyre, Craft Scotland
• Sean Baillie, STUC

Items and actions

Key points

• Members shared their views on the draft recommendations (paper 2) for Culture Fair Work Agreement shared by the Secretariat.
• The was a discussion around the development, implementation and oversight of the proposed Culture Fair Work Charter. This included the following:
  • Who would be responsible for managing charter accreditation and who would be involved in the development of the charter’s criteria;
  • the need for monitoring and review of charter status and structure;
  • the need for a mechanism for dispute resolution, in instances where it is alleged that an accredited employer is not meeting with agreed standards;
  • the amount of resource required to effectively manage development, implementation and oversight and where this would come from.

 

• Concerns were also raised about the proposed tiered structure (i.e. using a bronze, silver, gold system) as this could discriminate against smaller organisations. It suggested that a more nuanced approach similar to the Place Standards Tool should be considered.
• Other members shared concerns around the bronze, silver and gold labelling but proposed that a more nuanced tiered system be kept on the table for now as a means encouraging continuous development for employers towards Fair Work standards (including alignment with Fair Work First criteria) and beyond.
• The Fair Work Employer Support Tool was recommended as a useful starting point to help in developing the process for a Culture Fair Work Charter that works for employers and keeps them on board.
• It was noted that membership and accreditation of the Culture Fair Work Charter would be a helpful indicator of commitment to Fair Work principles for Creative Scotland when considering funding applications. However, it would not be used as standalone evidence. Creative Scotland also has no intention of adding additional Fair Work related criteria to funding applications beyond that already required as part of Fair Work First Conditionality (e.g. payment of the real Living Wage and access to appropriate channels of Effective Voice).
• Members noted that the charter should align with Fair Work First criteria, as much as possible, to act as useful tool to support employers to establish and go beyond the pre-requisites required to apply for public sector funding, from all sources.
• Members highlighted that the charter should act as supportive tool as opposed to a reward system which creates artificial competition as the intention should be to support employers to reach the next level of good working practice.
• There needs to be an incentive for employers to constructively engage with the charter and that to do this it needs to focus on the specific issues faced by workers and employers in Scotland’s creative industries instead of a generic approach.
• The charter should be a positive influence helping attract the best creative workers and partners. The charter should be a positive for employers and employees.
• Discussion around the other proposed recommendations are summarised below:

Culture Fair Work Communications Plan

• Any awareness raising campaign will need to promote key messages around Fair Work and its benefit for creative organisations such as increased productivity and staff wellbeing alongside strengthening recruitment and retention in a competitive sector.
• Messaging needs to be targeted at senior leadership in particular to have real impact, alongside other cultural funding bodies such as local authorities.
• Communications shouldn’t just be about asking employers to do more. It should include recognition and celebration of good practice already in place across Scotland’s creative industries which could be adopted more widely.

Fair Work in the Creative Industries Fund

• Feel the idea of a specific Fair Work fund is welcome but it must ensure that it complements, but does not duplicate, objectives of other funders such as Creative Scotland. Recipients should be meeting Fair Work standards.
• There is a need for appropriate monitoring and enforcement of Fair Work in allocating funding such as this, to ensure organisations are not funded when they are not promoting Fair Work practices.
• Need to decide whether this fund would be intended to help organisations simply meet the base line or, instead, support innovation to create inclusive working practices.
• Members asked about consideration of Fair Work Agreements in sectors across Scotland. The Secretariat assured members that factual discussions have been taking place with Construction and Hospitality officials, in line with the action agreed at first subgroup session and that a summary will be provided in due course.
• In summary, there was broad agreement for the proposed recommendations in principles but more work needs to be done to firm up the finer details.

Actions from session two

• subgroup members to review the Fair Work Toolkit and identify which elements would work best for workers and employers in the creative industries
• subgroup members were asked to consider more nuanced structures for the Culture Fair Work Charter and put forward examples, if possible

Ongoing actions

• requested that the secretariat draft a paper on potential legal considerations for a Culture FWA
• asked the Secretariat to engage with other areas working on FWAs and ask them if they would be willing to speak to taskforce subgroup
• asked the Secretariat for further information on relevant examples from other countries (EU/ Worldwide)