Fair Work First Statement

FAIR WORK STATEMENT

Jointly agreed by the Glasgow School of Art and the Trade Union Forum(UCU, UNISON, Unite and EIS), this statement confirms the Glasgow School of Art’s commitment to ensuring fair working practices are in place in support of ‘Fair Work First’.

Fair Work First is the Scottish Government's flagship policy for driving high quality and fair work across the labour market in Scotland by applying fair work criteria to grants, other funding and contracts being awarded by and across the public sector, where it is relevant to do so. Through this approach, the Scottish Government is asking employers to adopt fair working practices, specifically:

• Payment of at least the real Living Wage.
• Providing appropriate channels for effective workers’ voice, such as trade union recognition.
• Investment in workforce development.
• No inappropriate use of zero hours contracts.
• Action to tackle the gender pay gap and create a more diverse and inclusive workplace.
• Offer flexible and family friendly working practices for all workers from day one of employment
• Opposing the use of fire and  rehire practices

The Glasgow School of Art values the culture of partnership working that has been established with Trade Union Colleagues and will continue to work together to develop transparent mechanisms for employee voice and engagement founded on trust and respect.

The Glasgow School of Art’s values and the priorities of both the Schools’ Strategic Plan and the People Strategy are aligned to the Fair Work First principles ,further demonstrated by the following:

• The Institution is a Living Wage employer,     this can be confirmed on the living wage website https://scottishlivingwage.org/employer-directory/
• In addition to a culture of partnership working within established formal consultation and negotiation mechanisms, the Glasgow School of Art commits to carrying out regular colleague engagement surveys and offers other informal routes for engagement in line with our values.
• Glasgow School of Art endeavours to develop a skilled, sustainable workforce by undertaking effective consultation, planning, recruitment and development through effective organisational development and design.
• Through effective Workforce Planning the Glasgow School of Art endeavour to limit the use of zero hours contracts in order that they may only be mutually appropriate in some very limited     circumstances.
• The Glasgow School of Art publishes its Equal Pay and Equality Pay Gap Reports and equality monitoring reports on an annual basis and continues to work towards equitable support and career progression for colleagues across our workforce.
• The Institution offers a progressive suite of family-friendly policies (with day one entitlements), going beyond statutory entitlements.
• The Glasgow School of Art does not engage in ‘fire and rehire’ practices.

Many of the progressive practices and much of the progress made has been through working in partnership with the Trade Union Forum, as detailed above, and the Glasgow School of Art will continue to support an environment in which further progress can be made.