Independent Culture Fair Work Taskforce - improve working conditions in the creative industries.

5th December 2025

16 recommendations to improve working conditions in the creative industries.

Culture Secretary Angus Robertson has welcomed recommendations from an independent Taskforce set up to advise on current employment conditions in Scotland's culture and creative industries.

Following extensive engagement with the sectors, the Culture Fair Work Taskforce has published a total of 16 recommendations for how Fair Work conditions in the sector could be improved, in response to concerns raised around precarious freelance work, unpaid internships and fair pay and conditions.

The recommendations include:

the creation of a disputes and adjudication mechanism to handle disputes between employers and staff

safeguarding of creatives' work against theft from AI misappropriation, and

an increased role for Creative Scotland in ensuring Fair Work.

The Culture Secretary said, "I am very grateful to members of the independent Taskforce for their work on this report, which identifies a number of areas for improvement when it comes to how Fair Work is embedded in Scotland's creative industries.

"I will take time to carefully consider the detail of the recommendations for Scottish Government and will update Parliament in due course on the actions we will take in response. Given that some would intersect with reserved legislation, I will also be writing urgently to ask my UK Government counterparts to consider what actions they can take."

Briana Pegado, Chair of the independent Taskforce said, "It has been a pleasure chairing the Independent Culture Fair Work Taskforce with colleagues from across the creative industries and culture sector. Union representation, arts organisations, industry membership bodies, enterprise agencies, local authorities, creative networks, historic bodies, museums and freelancers have all been represented. Creative Scotland has also been represented on this task force. I am so grateful to the Taskforce members that have contributed their time, energy and expertise to this work.

"There has been a real commitment to crafting a set of recommendations that speak to areas as broad as fair pay and remuneration to the impact of AI on the cultural sector workforce. Considerations of equity and inclusion as well as how fair work may be enforced are all part of our recommendations. I am confident that many of our recommendations signal radical, innovative solutions to fair work that will help Scotland reach its ambitions to be a Fair Work Nation by 2030. Models across the continent have been considered and approaches across different industries have been reviewed. I am confident that our recommendations and draft charter prove to be a roadmap for the future of Fair Work that demonstrates a real appetite for systemic change can exist alongside practical solutions grounded in deeply embedded partnership working.

"I hope the Cabinet Secretary and other Ministers take our recommendations into consideration and I thank them for trusting us with this piece of work. I look forward to their response."

16 recommendations to improve working conditions in the creative industries.

Culture Secretary Angus Robertson has welcomed recommendations from an independent Taskforce set up to advise on current employment conditions in Scotland's culture and creative industries.

Following extensive engagement with the sectors, the Culture Fair Work Taskforce has published a total of 16 recommendations for how Fair Work conditions in the sector could be improved, in response to concerns raised around precarious freelance work, unpaid internships and fair pay and conditions.

The recommendations include:

the creation of a disputes and adjudication mechanism to handle disputes between employers and staff
safeguarding of creatives’ work against theft from AI misappropriation, and
an increased role for Creative Scotland in ensuring Fair Work.
The Culture Secretary said:

"I am very grateful to members of the independent Taskforce for their work on this report, which identifies a number of areas for improvement when it comes to how Fair Work is embedded in Scotland’s creative industries.

“I will take time to carefully consider the detail of the recommendations for Scottish Government and will update Parliament in due course on the actions we will take in response. Given that some would intersect with reserved legislation, I will also be writing urgently to ask my UK Government counterparts to consider what actions they can take."

Full details HERE