Fair Work Oversight Group minutes: January 2026

Attendees and apologies

• Richard Lochhead MSP, Minister for Business and Employment
• Anna Ritchie Allan, Close the Gap
• Denise Christie, STUC
• David Lonsdale, Scottish Retail Consortium
• David Taylor, ACAS
• Cllr Stephen Heddle (Rebekah Cameron-Berry in support), COSLA
• Marek Zemanik, CIPD
• Professor Patricia Findlay, Fair Work Convention
• Lynn Curran, Scottish Enterprise
• Eleonora Vanello, Prosper
• Rebecca Richard, Inclusion Scotland
• Stephanie Griffin, Equality and Human Rights Commission
• Scottish Government Officials

Apologies

• Heather Fiskin (represented by Rebecca), Inclusion Scotland
• Charandeep Singh, Scottish Chambers of Commerce
• Emma Congreve, Fraser of Allander Institute, Strathclyde University
• Dr Ima Jackson, Glasgow Caledonian University
• Cllr Richard Bell (represented by Stephen Heddle), COSLA
• Michelle Kinnaird (represented by Lynn Curran), Scottish Enterprise

 

Items and actions

Welcome

The Minister welcomed the continued input from the group and reasserted his involvement in the Fair Work agenda since its inception. 

The Minister drew attention to the substantial progress made towards the Fair Work Action Plan as evidenced in the 2025 Impact report and the Fair Work Convention’s Fair Work Nation Report published in November 2025. He looked ahead to the implementation of the Employment Rights Act and encouraged members to consider how this may feed into the Future of Fair Work in Scotland. 

Action log

All actions have been completed, with a meeting between the Minister, Fair Work Convention and the Strategic Business Forum planned for 29 January.

Fair Work Convention: Measuring Scotland’s performance as a leading Fair Work nation

The Fair Work Convention provided a summary presentation of their Measuring Scotland’s Performance as a Leading Fair Work Nation Report.

This new report updates the previous 2023 report, looking at Scotland’s progress over a 10-year period both against domestic and international indicators. Domestically, there are positive changes across the majority of indicators, though there are small negative changes in the short term. 

Internationally there is strong performance against some indicators as well as areas for improvement, such as: collective bargaining, Trade Union membership, involuntary non-permanent work, unemployment for young people and the disability employment gap.

The Fair Work Convention recognised the achievements made to date and how Fair Work is embedded in economic discourse in Scotland. It is unlikely Scotland will be leading on all indicators by the end of 2025 (with data available in 2026), however more progress has been made than would likely have occurred without a stretching and ambitious target.

Fair Work nation discussion

Access to workplaces is a key driver in improving Trade Union membership and measures to strengthen access, included in the Employment Rights Act 2025, were welcomed. The Fair Work Convention acknowledged that, while Trade Unions are the gold standard of effective voice and should continue to be promoted, there are other ways organisations can provide effective voice channels. In addition, collective bargaining can exist independently of trade union recognition. ACAS research around rebuilding confidence and skills around collective bargaining is relevant here.  

Questions focussed on underlying trends to the data such as COVID-19 or other societal shifts. The Convention responded that its research didn’t look into the trends behind the data.

Members queried the poor indicators linked to involuntary non-permanent work versus better indicators linked to permanent work. The two are not directly comparable, as involuntary non-permanent work looked at the number of employees in non-permanent work who wish to be permanent. Wider labour market issues in the UK result in workers often being less happy in non-permanent work than in other comparator countries. 

Scottish Enterprise welcomed the ‘Measuring Scotland’s Performance Report’ and asked if they could meet with the Fair Work Convention to discuss sector differences, particularly in light of their experience implementing grant conditionality.

Ongoing inequalities for those with intersectional identities were discussed, for example disabled women who are more likely to experience physical or mental harm at work. Ill health has now overtaken caring responsibility as a key driver for economic inactivity; and it was suggested that marginalised groups should be centred in future Fair Work priorities. The FWC agreed that Fair Work needs to create conditions for people who can and want to work to be able to.

The Convention suggested the data can help identify policy interventions to move the dial. They set a 10-year agenda because of the complexity of the issues and the need for multiple interventions and cross-society support.

Future of Fair Work

Scottish Government officials provided a presentation on the Employment Rights Act and led discussion on the future for Fair Work policy direction in Scotland. 

Members were encouraged to reach out if they wanted details of the various UK Government consultations on the Act currently in progress.

Opportunities for future policy focus were identified as upskilling, technological innovation and Net Zero transition: with challenges in regard to in-work and child poverty and ongoing inequalities in the workplace.

Officials shared information from consultations with stakeholders and employers on the future of Fair Work. Initial feedback from employers includes:

• concerns around rising costs including the National Insurance contribution increase and a higher real Living Wage level
• concerns around the impact of AI and the need for guidance around how Fair Work could help navigate changes in technology
• consensus that the Fair Work Framework focuses on the right things, and the next stage should be about embedding its dimensions
• questions around how we can better encourage, incentivise and support more organisations so that Fair Work becomes the norm 
• acknowledgement that small businesses require more intensive support to implement Fair Work as they do not all have HR departments 

The subsequent discussion centred around:

• Youth unemployment and implementation of recommendations from the FWC’s 2019 report on social care
• the importance of multi-year, fair and flexible funding for fair pay
• the importance of Trade Union membership and collective bargaining, with the potential for tripartite partnership agreements involving unions, employers and the Scottish Government. STUC offered to facilitate these arrangements
• on effective voice more widely, many employers would benefit from guidance and good practice examples
• the importance of taking a strong position in support of equality
• the need to communicate with business on the benefits and importance of Fair Work, including through peer-to-peer support
• the value of legislation for setting a minimum floor for working practices. Accompanied by strong mechanisms for dialogue in Scotland and effective enforcement by UKG, this will help build growth that is fair and sustainable

In response to questions around the purpose of this work, officials confirmed that they intend to set out themes of focus for Ministers this Spring, with more detailed advice for the incoming Government after the election. 

The tone of the discussion was collaborative and forward looking. There was a recognition of the progress made but an acknowledgement of the work still to be done. The next year will be a time of assessing where value can be added, for example concerning business influence on supply chains, and discussions on effective voice and building capability.

Progress update

OCEA provided an update on key progress since the last published indicator report in September 2025. They drew attention to the Fair Work First Evaluation, which is being taken forward with the Fair Work Convention, and will report in Summer 2026.  Work is ongoing to improve the quality of labour market data, with stakeholder engagement sessions in progress.

OCEA invited members to take part in upcoming sessions linked to improving labour market statistics, they provided a link to upcoming events and resources. 

A progress report on the Fair Work Action Plan was tabled at the meeting, updating on progress since the publication of the annual report in September.

COSLA representatives asked about progress around Action 1.4, the establishment of senior leadership anti-racism networks, and whether council leaders might be involved.

Any Other Business

The Minister drew the meeting to a close. 

Actions

• Fair Work Convention to meet with Scottish Enterprise around implementation of conditionality in grants
• the Scottish Government to share the UKG roadmap of the Employment Rights Act with the group
• the Scottish Government to share the details of the February session on labour market statistics
• officials to meet with COSLA to further discuss action 1.4 of the Fair Work Action Plan