SBS Blog > Assessing Scotland as a ‘Fair Work Nation’

Assessing Scotland as a ‘Fair Work Nation’ – a PhD experience

By Dustin Hafki - Posted on 11 June 2025

Dustin Hafki is a PhD student in the Department of Work, Employment and Organisation and recently attended the BUIRA Scotland conference which was focused on whether Scotland had achieved its vision of becoming a Fair Work Nation. Here, he shares his experience.

Organised by Professor Stewart Johnstone, University of Strathclyde Business School, and Professor Gregor Gall, University of Glasgow, academics, trade unionists, activists and policy advisors met at the University of Strathclyde in May for the BUIRA Scotland conference to assess the extent to which Scotland has achieved its vision of becoming ‘Fair Work Nation’ by 2025.

Throughout the day, speakers and delegates reflected on the achievement of the Fair Work Convention’s Vision that: “By 2025, people in Scotland will have a world-leading working life where fair work drives success, wellbeing and prosperity for individuals, businesses, organisations and for society.”

Both the achievements as well as the gaps in Scotland’s Fair Work policies and discussions were highlighted throughout the event, painting a vivid picture of the current state, ongoing consultations, and future prospects. The following account represents how I experienced the BUIRA Scotland event as a PhD student and discusses the highlights from the presenters that resonated the most with me.

The conference opened with an introduction to international debates in job quality and the background to Fair Work agenda in Scotland by Professor Johnstone and Professor Gall. The first presentation was then by Professor Patricia Findlay from the University of Strathclyde and the Scottish Centre for Employment Research as well as Co-Chair of the Fair Work Convention. She highlighted the approach taken to the Fair Work Framework, focusing around the achievements and gaps of Fair Work Policies. Further, she emphasised the role of employers as key actors in achieving Fair Work in Scotland.

In light of some of the more critical assessments expressed on the Fair Work Convention later in the day, it was interesting to hear Patricia Findlay’s opening discussion on the achievements of the policy as well as her explanation on how policy and processes have achieved embeddedness and positive progress but it may not immediately be reflected in outcomes. Her presentation also showcased how academic work can lead to real world impact – a great motivation for PhD students such as myself.

The second speaker, Roz Foyer – General Secretary of the STUC - shared trade union views and hopes for the ‘New Deal for Workers’, and discussed the limitations of collective bargaining in Scotland. In her speech, she also emphasised trade unions as the most effective voice for workers and challenged narrow interpretations around Fair Pay that are centred solely around the Living Wage. The importance of employment legislation were part of continuous discussions throughout the day.

Marek Zemanik, Senior Public Policy Adviser at the CIPD, presented insights from the CIPD ‘Working Lives Scotland 2024’ job quality survey and also some yet unpublished results from the 2025 survey. Key themes revolved around workplace conflict, home and hybrid working as well as employee voice. In the context of Fair Work and effective voice, it stood out that almost 1 out of 5 workers felt that they did not have access to any voice channels in Scotland. The perspective provided by Marek ended with recommendations for organisations such as management training and making use of different channels for employee voice, further highlighting the role that employers play in embedding Fair Work in Scotland.

Professor Ruth Dukes from the University of Glasgow presented a critical account of the Employment Rights Bill against Labour’s initial policy proposals of the “New Deal for Workers” and “Make Work Pay”. Her assessment highlighted challenges around Fair Work implementation, showcasing the benefits of the single status of worker, practical considerations are the ‘right to have an offer made, for workers on zero-hours contracts, as well as shortcomings in removing previously introduced barriers to ensuring effective voice. This presentation as well as the follow-up discussion emphasised the Scottish context of devolved powers and further highlighted how academic research can shape policy and have real world impact

Following the lunch break, the next slot was dedicated to three presentations based on recent research projects: Professor Ian Cunningham from the University of Strathclyde and Professor Alina Baluch from the University of St Andrews shared insights from a longitudinal study on the Scottish Living Wage in the social care sector. The presentation included a detailed overview of the social care sector as well as the challenges around recruitment and retention. Due to the alignment with my own research on employment in social care, the highlighting of insufficient funding in the sector as a main underlying issue as well as the argument around shortcomings that a flat pay rate increase brings for managerial and highly-specialised workers stood out.

Dr Tasos Hadjisolomou from the University of Strathclyde shared an international assessment of Fair Work in Scotland for the hospitality sector. His presentation characterised the hospitality sector as dominated by insecure contracts, regular abuse of employees as well as little autonomy of workers and suggested improvements are necessary around these three themes. Further, he argued for explicitly naming ‘Unfair Work’ as the counter side of Fair Work and showcased that Scotland’s hospitality sector is situated within ‘Unfair Work’ based on the comparative data. Overall, Tasos’s presentation highlighted gaps for Fair Work in the hospitality sector around employment standards such as contracts as well as voice and representation of workers.

The third part of this session on research evidence was by Dr Pedro Mendonça, Associate Professor at the Heriot Watt University, who presented on the limitations of current Fair Work policies with regard to gig workers. His presentation evidenced gaps for gig workers around all five dimensions of the Fair Work Framework, highlighting gig workers as a group not currently captured by Scotland’s Fair Work agenda and arguing that Fair Work must apply to all workers.

The last presentation of the day, presented by Professor Jean Jenkins from Cardiff University, brought the approach to Fair Work taken by Wales and highlighted challenges to achieving Fair Work in devolved nations. Additionally, she showed how Scotland scored low in a UK-wide comparison towards most characteristics of Fair Work including autonomy over working time, managerial support and task discretion. Jean concluded her discussion by summarising that the concrete experience of workers is what should matter most to judging Fair Work.

Has Scotland achieved its vision of becoming a Fair Work Nation by 2025? Based on the data presented at the conference around the outcomes of Fair Work, it would be necessary to conclude that this vision has not been achieved, and the Fair Work agenda in Scotland remains a work in progress. Nonetheless, it was also highlighted that the Fair Work policy has led to positive changes such as a larger number of workers earning the Real Living Wage and increasing trade union membership in some sectors. Crucially, the presenters and participants offered clear ideas regarding what changes would be impactful for workers and might help achieve this vision in the future.