« Previous | Contents | Next »
Listen
Scottish Executive and STUC Memorandum of Understanding: Paper on Fair Employment Practice and Effective Trade Unionism
Section Two: Scottish Executive Guidance and Wider Activity on Fair Employment Practice
Best Value
Public bodies are under a duty to apply the principles of best value. Following these principles involves putting arrangements in place for continuous improvement in performance while maintaining an appropriate balance between quality and cost. Public bodies must also have regard to economy, efficiency, effectiveness, equal opportunities and to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development.
Fair employment practice is an objective of Best Value, in that it contributes to improvement in the delivery and quality of services. Guidance on the characteristics of Best Value for organisations includes significant references to fair employment practices. This guidance has been issued to the Scottish Executive, its Agencies, NDPBs, and Scottish local government under the statutory authority of the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003 2 .
In addition Scottish Ministers will issue guidance to Scottish local authorities (under a specific statutory authority in the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003 relating to guidance on contractual issues) about the treatment of employment issues when exercising a power to enter into a contract. The guidance will include advice on preventing the development of a 'two tier' workforce after staff transfers from the public to the private sector.
Ministers have powers in the Local Government Act 2003 to issue guidance and directions to Scottish local authorities about practice in arranging staff transfers to the private sector. These powers are intended to be acted on in 2004/5.
PPP Staffing Protocol
The Executive/STUC Staffing Protocol (PPPs in Scotland - Protocol and Guidance Concerning Employment Issues 3) has applied to all PPPs entered into after September 2003, across every public services sector covered by the Executive. It clearly sets out principles to ensure that staff are treated properly and that fair employment policies and practices are followed by PPP contractors.
The Protocol seeks to ensure full consultation with staff and their recognised trade unions throughout the PPP process. It seeks to ensure that staff continue to be protected in transfer situations, including pension provision, and it ends the scope for two tier workforce situations in PPPs. The Protocol allows for in-house bid situations, with practical guidance on the procurement processes to be followed in this regard issued in September 2003 following a period of consultation.
The first review of the Protocol by SE and the STUC suggests that the Protocol seemed to have been adopted, although it was too early to tell whether full adherence has been achieved as many PPP projects were still in the early stages of the procurement process. Further reviews of the Protocol will take place annually.
Procurement
Our Scottish Procurement Directorate (SPD) is responsible for Scottish public sector procurement policy. The SPD Policy Manual (originally published in 1992 and updated periodically) sets out policy and procedural guidance for the Executive's Departments, Agencies and sponsored public bodies in the procurement of goods and services. SPD also set out policy and procedural guidance for the Executive's Departments, Agencies and sponsored public bodies in the procurement of construction works and services.
Public procurement law, policy and best practice promotes equal treatment between suppliers and ensures suppliers are selected on the basis of the ability to perform the requirement rather than any other factors.
All standard Scottish Executive terms and conditions of contract contain a clause requiring contractors not to discriminate within the meaning of the Race Relations legislation and requiring that all necessary steps to ensuring that staff or sub contractors working on the contract comply appropriately. Tenderers are usually asked to disclose adverse judgements relating to the conduct of their business; failure to comply with Race Relations legislation may render them ineligible to bid for Scottish Executive contracts.
The Scottish Executive's standard contract terms require contractors to comply with Race Relations legislation. The standard pre-qualification questionnaires ask (where relevant to delivery of service) for details of the candidate's approach to recruitment, training and development and for details of staff turnover.
Guidance on our website 4 indicates that any company found to have been involved in "bogus" self-employment or to have breached race relations 5 or health & safety legislation may be excluded from bidding.
For legal reasons we cannot, however, exclude bids on grounds which do not demonstrate that the bidder is not suitable to be awarded a contract (either because it is not well qualified to meet the requirement or because it has behaved improperly). If the bidder has not been found guilty of an offence it is often difficult to take a position that we will not consider a bid from them (i.e. even though there may be concerns about a company's employment practices, if there is no evidence of poor performance or impropriety it is difficult to exclude them from the competition).
Equality
Our Executive Equality Unit plays a key role in promoting good employment practices, particularly in relation to equal pay. For example, the Close the Gap Project launched in March 2001 aims to eradicate the gender pay gap by:
- Raising awareness amongst employers, employees, union representatives and advocacy agencies of why the pay gap exists and how to develop policies to close it;
- Encouraging employers to carry out equal pay audits using the Equal Opportunities Commission's Equal Pay Toolkit (one is now available specifically to help small organisations with less than 50 employees) and disseminating good practice across Scotland; and
- Providing training for representatives in the workplace, to enable them to give better informed information and advice on pay issues.
The partners in the project are the Executive, the STUC, Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, TGWU, Equal Opportunities Commission Scotland (lead partner), Fair Play and UHI Millennium Institute.
The Executive is committed to promoting equality of opportunity for all and to raising public awareness of racist attitudes and behaviour and the negative impact it has on individuals and society more generally. The 'One Scotland, Many Cultures' Campaign aims to celebrate the positive aspects of a multi-cultural society in Scotland. The Campaign, consists of TV, radio, cinema, billboard and bus adverts to raise awareness. It also focuses on raising awareness of racism outwith the school environment; and tackling racism in the workplace.
In addition to promotional work, the Equality Unit also fund a number of projects aimed at tackling racism. For example, funding the STUC project One Workplace Equal Rights aimed at tackling racism and mainstreaming equality in the workplace.
Fair Play
Fair Play works to highlight the contribution women can make to economic development in Scotland. Fair Play focuses on a number of themes including promoting work-life balance, developing equality practice with SMEs across Scotland, raising awareness of gender stereotyping in skills, training and employment, and tackling the gender pay gap. It is funded by the Scottish Executive, Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the Equal Opportunities Commission.
Ministers are considering the case for a new equality organisation in Scotland based on a review of Fair Play which concluded that there was a strong argument for scoping work to examine the case for a different organisation to provide support to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on a wider range of equality issues: race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion/belief and age.
Partnership at Work Fund
The Executive fully supports the DTI's Partnership at Work fund. 'Partnership at Work' refers to the relationship between employers, employees and their representatives - developing better employment relationships at all levels, helping to build trust in the workplace and the sharing of information and working together to solve business problems. Where this is successful, employers and employees both recognise the importance of their relationship and work towards developing this further for mutual reward. The fund is a grant scheme designed to improve employer-employee relationships, workplace productivity and job satisfaction. Companies, business intermediaries including employer federations, trade unions and other employee representatives, trade associations, Learning and Skills Councils, public sector bodies and charities are all eligible to apply. A number of businesses, unions and organisations in Scotland have successfully applied for this grant.
Public Appointments
The Executive's Public Appointments Team have regular contact with the STUC and consult the STUC on public appointment issues when appropriate, including on equality and diversity issues.
Judicial Appointment Boards for Scotland
Prior to devolution, the appointment of judges and sheriffs in Scotland was conducted on a confidential basis and appointments were made without public advertisement of vacancies or any open competition. Shortly after taking office, Scottish Ministers made a commitment to establish an independent Judicial Appointments Board to make recommendations to the First Minister who in turn nominates individuals to The Queen.
The Board was set up in May 2002 balancing membership from the legal profession and lay people, including a lay Chair. The Board's remit is to conduct open competitions for appointments to the office of judge of the Court of Session, Sheriff Principal and sheriff (both full-time and part-time sheriffs). The Board operates under guidance from Ministers to make recommendations on merit and to seek to widen the field from whom judicial appointments are made. In particular, the Board have been invited to encourage more applications from female candidates and from ethnic minorities.
« Previous | Contents | Next »