Ben Macpherson
Credit: Scottish government

It will mean that higher and further education bodies will be expected to meet additional criteria in areas such as addressing workplace inequalities and the use of zero hours contracts, as a condition of the grants received from the Scottish Funding Council (SFC).

Currently colleges and universities must only meet two Fair Work First policies in relation to payment of the real Living Wage and recognition of workers’ voice, such as trade union recognition. The SFC has now agreed to undertake further work to ensure that post-16 institutions aim to adopt all other Fair Work First criteria from April 2027.

The change has been announced ahead of next week’s stage three amendments and final vote on the passage of the Tertiary Education and Training (Funding and Governance) (Scotland) Bill, which proposes further reform of the funding of post-school education and skills.

Higher and further education minister Ben Macpherson said: “The Scottish government is committed to seeing Fair Work embedded in practice across the public sector and beyond in Scotland. It is at the heart of our ambition to move towards a wellbeing economy that is valued by how it benefits employees and communities, alongside traditional economic indicators. 

“Implementation of Fair Work First must be the guiding criteria to promote fairer work practices for staff within tertiary education, and in particular in colleges and universities.

“The SFC will now look to ensure that institutions aim to adopt all Fair Work First criteria from April 2027, while acknowledging the sector will be at different stages of implementation and appropriate transition periods may be needed.”