One of our strategic aims is to offer a welcoming and inclusive culture where people are supported and enriched by working with and for the International Festival. This links directly to the Scottish Government’s Fair Work First principles that are now a requirement of those organisations receiving public funding in Scotland. Fair Work guides organisations in their approach. Through observing the Fair Work Framework we can develop practices to enhance the experience of those working with us. The Fair Work Conventions Framework defines Fair Work as work that offers:

• Effective voice
• Fulfilment
• Opportunity
• Respect
• Security

These can be observed differently in different workplaces, at the Festival we have chosen to create a Fair Work strategic working group with members from across the Festival. The Fair Work working group is mapping what we do currently in Festival against the Fair Work Framework. We have representation from across the Festival and our Fair Work group is in itself an example of Effective Voice in the Festival. We aim to produce a 12 month plan clearly defining our Fair Work goals.

Fair Work is key to supporting people and organisations to flourish and enables a more inclusive culture and supports staff to shape their employment experience. Fair Work can enable staff to play a full and active role in the Festival and underpins performance, professional development, innovation, wellbeing, health and inclusivity.

We commit to Fair Work principles in the following ways:

Effective Voice:

The Festival supports employees to contribute ideas and feed into policy and decision making through a number of channels. Staff meetings take place regularly and provide a space for discussion, progress updates on all our activities and sharing of information. Staff are actively consulted on issues that affect them either individually or in teams or through staff surveys. Formal cross- departmental standing working groups cover the core areas of EDI, Fair Work, and Environmental Sustainability. People are also encouraged to form new groups around areas of personal interest. Staff- led groups established so far include LGBTQ+ and Menopause which have resulted in changes to policy. We have an agreement with the union BECTU covering our engagement with seasonal production and technical crews.

Fulfilment:

All staff employed on a fixed term contract for 6 months, longer, and permanently, participate in an annual personal development review to facilitate objective setting, identify training needs and professional development goals.

Opportunity:

Our vacancies are advertised and we use specialist mailing lists to actively target diverse groups. We encourage applications from under-represented groups and have selected to use positive action in our recruitment to encourage diversity in our workforce. We use the Rooney Rule in relation to race. As a Disability Confident Employer, we guarantee interviews to disabled candidates who meet minimum criteria. We offer opportunities for progression for existing employees and identify areas for growth and development through individual Personal Development Plans.

Respect:

We have a code of conduct that applies to everyone that we engage with. It is reviewed annually and circulated to everyone that works for, or with, the Festival. We display visiting company protocols and procedures for reporting harassment or abuse in venues. We have policies in place to support positive behaviours: Bullying and Harassment; Grievance and Whistleblowing.

Security:

We are an accredited Real Living Wage Employer and use our purchasing power to promote Fair Pay within our supply chain through our Procurement policy. We are committed to meeting, or exceeding, industry standards with regards to rates of pay.

We voluntarily monitor our gender pay gap which has been reducing year on year and we aim to eliminate it by 2027.

We employ c.60 people on a permanent basis providing job security and stability and over 200 seasonal contracts for a range of specialist roles. We will explore ways to extend staff benefits to seasonal staff such through a training allowance. We will expand the model of replacing fixed term contracts with annualised contracts. Freelance contracts are used where appropriate, and our policy is to never directly issue zero hour contracts.