Independent Culture Fair Work Task Force Report and Recommendations

Annex C - Letter to UK Government for Consultation on Unpaid Internships

Making Work Pay - Consultation Response on behalf of the Independent Culture Fair Work Task Force for Scottish Government

To Whom It May Concern,

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to the ‘Making Work Pay’ consultation. This response has been written by the Chair of the Scottish Government’s Culture Fair Work Task Force on behalf of the Culture Fair Work Task Force.

Purpose of the Scottish Government’s Independent Culture Fair Work Task Force

This short-life delivery group was created in 2024, following a commitment in the Culture Strategy Action Plan (December 2023). The remit of the taskforce as outlined in the draft terms of reference: “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.”

At the heart of the Taskforce is our commission 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.

Making Work Pay: Consultation Response

This Culture Fair Work Task Force has considered the impact of unpaid internships, paid internships below the national minimum wage, volunteers, voluntary work, and work shadowing as part of our recommendations to Scottish Government ministers on the implementation of fair working practices in the Scottish cultural sector and creative industries.

The practice of unpaid internships, shadowing, and voluntary work is common amongst employers and institutions in the cultural sector. However, the impact on the creative workforce is disproportionately negative as these practices create barriers to entry to, and retention in, the cultural sector, prevent career progression and prioritise cultural sector workers from privileged backgrounds that can afford to work unpaid in the sector for future employment opportunities.

Voluntary Work and Volunteering

We understand the positive impact of volunteering in the charity and not-for-profit sector where volunteering has a positive impact on charitable organisations and most importantly a positive impact for the volunteers themselves; however, voluntary work should never replace paid work in the cultural sector and creative industries.

The practice of listing a paid role as a voluntary opportunity strips the future workforce of paid progression opportunities contributing to brain drain and the undervaluing of labour in the creative workforce.

We support guidance on Volunteers from the Volunteer Scotland Volunteer Charter, which stipulates ten key principles. Namely, principle 7 outlines ‘[v]olunteers should not be used to reduce contract costs nor be a replacement for paid workers in competitive tenders or procurement processes.’

Principle 8 warns ‘[v]olunteers should not be used to bypass minimum wage legislation nor generate profit for owners.’ While principle 9 implements the ‘effective voice’ component of the Fair Work Convention’s Fair Work Framework, which requires workers to meaningfully contribute to workplace policies and decisions made on their employment.

Principle 9 addresses this: ‘[v]olunteers and paid workers should be given the opportunity to contribute to the development and monitoring of volunteering policies and procedures, including the need for policies that resolve any issues or conflicts that may arise.’ We support the Volunteer Scotland Volunteer Charter’s approach to voluntary work and volunteers.

Unpaid Internships

Though we support the UK Government’s view that: ‘internships can provide individuals, and young people in particular, with opportunities that will set them up with the skills and experience to help succeed in their careers. Access to these opportunities should not be curtailed because of where the individuals live or whether they have the financial support enabling them to work for free…’ and furthermore the increasing concern that: ‘examples of some employers who not complying with this requirement[,]’ that paid interns are paid at least the National Minimum Wage if classified as workers.

We support the UK Government’s view that: ‘[w]e know that there are unpaid internships where interns are performing tasks that benefit the organisation and the work being done is indistinguishable from that of workers, but they are not being treated as such. These individuals should be classed as workers and entitled to full employment rights, including qualifying for the National Minimum Wage.’

Though we feel that there should not only be no unpaid internships as a standard to prevent job insecurity and the increase of in work poverty, but all interns should be paid the Real Living Wage rather than the National Living Wage.

Research conducted by STUC and associated unions in their ‘Freelance and Forgotten: A Report on Worker Exploitation in Scotland’s Creative Industries’ cites ‘Unpaid Work Eroding Hourly Rates: When considering the significant amount of unpaid work required to secure and support freelance contracts, the actual hourly rate for many falls well below the national minimum wage.’ (STUC, pg. 26).

This highlights the amount of unpaid hours waged workers are taking on as part of their work that is unaccounted for, an externality that does not reflect the real work hours of existing workers. A large portion of the cultural workforce is self-employed, which reflects wider trends of workers across the UK.

We are supportive of the creation of a Fair Work Agency as an enforcement body which will enable and support the implementation of Fair Work across all sectors. The Fair Work Agency would also have some enforcement powers that would be able to address the impact of poor practice, including enforcing the outcomes of the Employment Tribunal Penalty Scheme, which has seen near £36 million awards and legally binding settlements going unpaid to workers from employers. Research conducted by ‘The Bureau of Investigative Journalism’ this month (02 October 2025) explores the extent of employers dodging their commitments as a result of being taken to an employment tribunal by way of ACAS.

Given the lack of protections self-employed workers face under employment law, the impact on paid interns is even more significant. The risk of exploitation for unpaid internships, volunteers, and shadow workers is exponential given the risks they undertake in a workplace setting without any type of employment status.

Paid Internships

Paid internships should be remunerated above the National Minimum Wage and should be remunerated based on the Real Living Wage as determined by the Living Wage Foundation. This rate should be adjusted based on geographic location in the UK given living costs rise and fall depending on the location of the internship. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has conducted extensive work on Minimum Income Standards, which suggests a single person in the UK needs to earn £30,500 to reach ‘a minimum acceptable standard of living in 2025.’

The National Minimum Wage falls short of that amount by nearly £7,000 per annum at a rate of £12.21 per hour. The Real Living Wage better reflects the needs of single people in the UK in 2025 with a rate of £12.60 per hour and £13.85 per hour in London, which does not reach the aspiration of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s Minimum Income Standard, but is more than the National Minimum Wage. We support a move towards all paid interns being paid the National Living Wage rather than just the National Minimum Wage, where they are classified as ‘workers.’

The Impact of AI

With the growth of AI, entry level jobs are disappearing across all sectors. Jobs that would normally follow on from unpaid and paid internships as well as voluntary work. Given the increasing threat to the workforce, a need to protect paid employment and internship opportunities is even more important, as entry level jobs disappear from the workforce. Research conducted by the Society of Authors last year reveals that a third of translators and a quarter of illustrators are losing work to AI. That number has increased since the survey of their members was conducted.

This task force supports these recommendations in response to the call for responses for ‘Making Work Pay’. A number of these responses fall outwith the remit of the Scottish Government and are reserved matters for UK Government under Employment Law. Given the recent Employment Rights’ Bill Consultation, we felt our response to this consultation timely given our wider recommendations report on fair work implementation for the Scottish Culture Sector is due with Scottish Ministers in November 2025.

We hope you consider our response to this consultation and support the work of ‘Making Work Pay’ to boost living standards, improve job security, and create opportunities for all while making sure workers have the right protections under employment law.

To find out more about the work of this task force, please visit our webpage: Culture Fair Work Taskforce - gov.scot.

Yours sincerely,

Briana Pegado, Chair Culture Fair Work Taskforce

Ola Wojtkiewicz, Creative Edinburgh
Marlene Curran, Equity
Caroline Sewell, Musicians’ Union (MU)
B. D. Owens, Scottish Artists Union (SAU)
Màiri Taylor, Birds of Paradise Theatre Company
Kathryn Welch, Culture Counts
Mark Geddes, South of Scotland Enterprise
Lucy Casot, Museums and Galleries Scotland
Ayo Schwartz, National Theatre of Scotland
Rosie Aspinall Priest, independent – advocate for rights of freelancers/workers in creative sector