News

Guidance released on Fair Work Practices in public contracts

From 1^st November 2015 public bodies across Scotland will be required to consider whether to include a question on fair work practices, including the Living Wage,  when issuing public contracts.

To support this, the Scottish Government has produced guidance for Buyers on how to evaluate fair work practices  when selecting tenderers and awarding contracts. The guidance makes clear that the Scottish Government considers payment of the Living Wage to be a significant indicator of an employer’s commitment to fair work practices and that the payment of the Living Wage is one of the clearest ways that an employer can demonstrate that it takes a positive approach to its workforce. However, the guidance also emphasises that whilst failure to pay the Living Wage would be a strong negative indicator it does not mean that the supplier automatically fails to meet fair work standards.

The Fair Work guidance is the first piece of statutory guidance to be published in support of the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014.  The 3 new EU Procurement Directives will be transposed into Scottish Regulations by spring next year.

For further information please follow the link below:

http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/10/2086/