Fair Work Action Plan: impact report 2025

6. Our ask of employers and support available

6.1 Aims

We will support employers to utilise the resources and support available to embed Fair Work in their organisations. We will work collaboratively to develop these resources to support and build capability among employers, employability providers and partners.

6.2 Delivery overview

Action

3.1: Develop a central Fair Work resource

Status

Complete

Action

3.2: Develop a communications strategy to highlight the benefits of Fair Work

Status

Complete

Action

3.3: Increase the number of people who have security of pay and contract through support of real Living Wage and real Living Hours

Status

In progress

Action

3.4: Review and disseminate learning and best practice from the Workplace Equality Fund

Status

In progress

Action

3.5: Develop good practice guidance for employers to showcase successful application of positive action measures

Status

In progress

Action

3.6: Promote the benefits of flexible working to organisations

Status

In progress

Action

3.7: Develop an intersectional and anti-racist training framework

Status

In progress

Action

3.8: Work with appropriate networks and stakeholders to develop sectoral Fair Work Agreements in sectors with higher prevalence of low-paid and precarious jobs

Status

In progress

Action

3.9: Work with employers, workers and trade unions to strengthen effective voice in the workplace

Status

In progress

6.2.1 Delivered to date

• A Fair Work digital support hub has been established at Fair Work - mygov.scot. The resource was developed in partnership with CIPD, Prosper, ACAS, STUC, Business Gateway, Enterprise Agencies, Skills Development Scotland and the Fair Work Convention secretariat. It provides employers with information on Fair Work while signposting to a large range of external partners. The Fair Work digital hub will be continually reviewed and developed in partnership with stakeholders to meet the needs of employers.
• The inaugural Fair Work Festival took place from 9 to 13 June 2025 with 18 events hosted by a range of partners, including many involved in the creation of the Fair Work digital support hub. The aim of the festival was to raise awareness of Fair Work in Scotland and encourage employers to make positive changes within their organisations. The accompanying social media campaign achieved almost 64,000 impressions and over 8,500 video views.
• Fair Work communications campaigns took place in summer 2023, autumn 2024 and January 2025, signposting employers towards support available within the Fair Work Employer Support Tool hosted on the Scottish Enterprise website. Analytics confirm a 46% increase in the use of this tool during active campaigns.
• The number of real Living Hours employers in Scotland has quadrupled since the FWAP was refreshed and there are now over 100 employers in Scotland providing workers with predictable and dependable working contracts.
• During the period 2024-25 over 7,600 workers were uplifted to payment of at least the real Living Wage because of Living Wage accreditation. The number of accredited Living Wage employers has continued to increase to over 3,900 in 2025, from over 3,500 as reported in 2024. Proportionally, Scotland has around five times as many accredited employers as the rest of the UK. Funding in 2025-26 is intended to support the collection of data related to the protected characteristics of workers and priority family groups to better track the impacts of uplifts to the real Living Wage.
• During Real Living Wage Week each autumn, Scottish Ministers visit real Living Wage employers to raise awareness, and to promote and celebrate the importance of paying employees a fair and sustainable wage. Sixteen ministerial visits took place during Real Living Wage Week in 2024.
• The Workplace Equality Fund funded 13 projects between 2022 and 2024 supporting employers to address barriers for disabled people, racialised minorities, women and workers aged over 50. A total of 212 partners were involved, with 630 employers engaged across 43 sectors, reaching over 13,000 participants. Over 200 distinct products have been developed including policies, resource packs, eLearning material, podcasts and videos. A conference in November 2023 was attended by 210 delegates, 86% of whom indicated that it had impacted their understanding of workplace equality.
• In line with a 2025 Programme for Government commitment, funding of up to £230,000 will support three projects aimed at tackling economic inactivity. These will focus on improving flexible working; supporting disabled people or those with health issues to enter, remain and progress in work; and embedding inclusive recruitment and progression, and upskilling people managers.
• The first draft of the Anti-Racism Workplace Training Framework has been completed. Connect Three were commissioned to produce the draft, supported by a stakeholder advisory group, which included anti-racism academics, CEMVO Scotland, Inclusion Scotland, LGBT Youth Scotland and members of health boards’ Ethnic Minority Staff Forum. Future development of the framework will be informed by the senior leadership work outlined in action 1.4.
• The Scottish Government has continued to provide funding to support trade unions in increasing their capacity to support and deliver on Fair Work. Currently, the main provision for this is through the Fair Work in Action Fund, which assists trade unions to enhance their understanding of Fair Work First and advance Fair Work across Scotland’s workplaces, particularly in relation to effective voice. It also aims to improve equality representation and leadership development within the trade union movement.
• Effective Voice became a mandatory condition of public sector grants in July 2023, signalling the importance of Effective Voice, which includes the role of trade unions in Scotland’s workplaces.
• In relation to Fair Work Agreements there have been significant developments in sectoral approaches to Fair Work:
  • In Construction a Transformation Action Plan has been published to take forward the commitments of the Scottish Construction Accord including Fair Work, diversity and inclusion.
  • Through provision of additional funding, from April 2025 the real Living Wage is being paid to adult social care workers delivering direct care in commissioned services and to those working in the private, third and independent sectors delivering funded early learning and childcare. This should contribute to reducing the gender pay gap given the prevalence of female workers across these sectors.
  • Proposed measures to extend the provisions in the UK Employment Rights Bill for the establishment of a Social Care Negotiating Body to Scotland were agreed by the Scottish Parliament.
  • Additional investment will enable payment of at least the real Living Wage to childcare staff delivering funded early learning and childcare in private and third sector services. This has supported an average increase of over £1,000 in the gross salary of eligible staff who are working full-time in 2025-26, with women accounting for 96% of day care of children staff and 98% of childminders.
  • The industry-led National Tourism Strategy, Scotland Outlook 2030 Responsible Tourism for a Sustainable Future commits to support and enable the adoption of Fair Work practices in Scotland’s tourism sector.
  • The Fair Work Hospitality Inquiry Report was launched by the Fair Work Convention in September 2024, with recommendations for the hospitality sector that will be carefully considered and taken forward as appropriate.
  • A Culture Fair Work Taskforce was established as a short-life delivery group with Ministerial co-chairs in 2024, following a commitment in the Culture Strategy Action Plan (December 2023). The remit of the taskforce is: ‘to set the direction of Fair Work through recommending a set of priority actions to further the adherence to Fair Work principles in the sector, including consideration of the form and content of a sectoral Fair Work Agreement.’ A series of meetings is underway covering each of the Fair Work dimensions with final recommendations expected to go to Scottish Ministers later in 2025.
  • The Retail Industry Leadership Group (ILG) is working in collaboration with officials to produce a Growing Fair Work in Retail resource to support the retail sector in Scotland achieve its Fair Work goals. It is anticipated this will be published in Autumn 2025.

6.3 Related actions across the Scottish Government

• The Pathways: A New Approach for Women in Entrepreneurship report was published in February 2023. In June 2023 the then Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy committed to a full implementation of recommendations on widening female participation in entrepreneurship. In 2023-24 the Scottish Government allocated £1.3 million to a Pathways Fund, and a further £2.6 million in 2024-25 to continue the Fund and deliver a pre-start regional pilot in the South of Scotland.
• In 2024-25, the Scottish Government continued to fund the STUC’s Unions into Schools Programme. This aims to equip young people for success in both their working lives and within wider society. Union representatives deliver structured sessions to pupils in secondary schools, improving their knowledge of their rights and responsibilities in the workplace, teaching them how to recognise and deal with workplace discrimination and informing them of where to seek support. A total of 241 sessions took place across Scotland in 2024-25.
• The National Events Strategy was published in May 2024. As part of the strategy, sector specific guidance will continue to be developed to promote and support inclusive, responsible employment and volunteering practices across the sector. This will help deliver one of the five Strategy Outcomes, that ‘the events sector is an attractive sector for employment with Fair Work practices for its workforce’.
• The Supporting a Mentally Healthy Workplace digital platform was launched in August 2022. It has been visited over 33,000 times since launch to March 2025. To complement the support available through the digital platform, the National Learning Network for Employers was established in 2023. This network engages with over 800 people from employers of all sizes and across all sectors to share learning and experiences of supporting mental health and wellbeing in the workplace.

6.4 Progress indicators – overview

• In each of the last four years, at least 450 employers in Scotland gained real Living Wage Accreditation. The Construction sector has the highest number of accredited employers.
• Real Living Hours Accreditation is increasing each year but from a small base.
• Most employees aged 18+ in Scotland earn the real Living Wage or above.