Fair Work Statement

Jointly agreed by the University and the Joint Trade Unions (UCU, UNISON, Unite and GMB), this statement confirms the University’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 University values the culture of partnership working that has been established with the Joint Trade Unions and, through formal and informal channels, is committed to working positively with the Trade Unions to promote a culture of open, honest dialogue and joint working. Well-established consultation and engagement mechanisms are in place to support constructive engagement across a range of workstreams that support the Fair Work First principles.

The University’s values and the priorities of both the University Strategy and the People & Organisational Development Strategy are in alignment with the Fair Work First principles, further demonstrated by the following:

  • The University 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 University carries out regular colleague engagement surveys and offers other informal routes for engagement in line with our values. This can be accessed by visiting https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/staff/colleagueengagement/feedbackanddialogue/colleagueengagementsurvey/
  • Organisational development (and its importance) is recognised within the above strategies and the University continues to invest in colleague development, programmes and strategic initiatives to maximise our organisational capability and the experiences and opportunities that this presents our workforce.
  • The University’s Extended Workforce Policy is clear that zero hours contracts will not generally fulfil the principles of the policy and that they may only be mutually appropriate in some very limited circumstances.
  • The University continues to publish its Equal Pay and Equality Pay Gap Reports and equality monitoring reports and outlines its commitment to (and actions to achieve) equitable support and progression for colleagues across our workforce on the Equality & Diversity Pay Gap web pages.
  • The University offers a progressive suite of family-friendly policies (with day one entitlements), going beyond statutory entitlements and including paid Carers Leave.
  • The University does not engage in ‘fire and rehire’ practices.

Many of the progressive practices and much of the progress made has been in partnership with the Joint Trade Unions via the established mechanisms described above and the University will continue to support an environment in which such progress can be made.