SBWN believes Fair Work is an integral part of our work advocating for BPOC writers in the literary sector. We do this by creating a space where our members have a voice; can access new, exciting, and consistent opportunities to further their practice; they can sustain their practice comfortably and without putting their livelihoods at risk, be part of a supportive and generative community, and be treated with respect.
Effective Voice
As an organising committee facilitating the Scottish BPOC Writers Network we operate in a non-hierarchical way. Committee members’ expertise, views and experience are crucial to the delivery of our programme. We also encourage the wider community to share thoughts with us. We instil an active listening approach and encourage team members to offer their ideas and reflections, input into decision-making, and work together to find a consensus and pathways we agree upon. We keep communication channels open and clear, to facilitate smooth running and resolve any issues.
Our members are encouraged to lend their voice through various means including but not limited to evaluation and feedback forms, our wider annual EDI survey and our advisory group. Ideas, feedback and input gathered inform our future programming decisions. Our Safe(r) Space policy and surrounding complaints infrastructure is crucial to ensure members can participate fully and trust that their needs will be met and members’ experiences will be taken seriously, whilst in the past the policy has allowed us to ensure to uphold rules and procedures around members’ safety, we are looking to further develop our formal complaints procedure and embed further avenues for our membership to shape SBWN programming and procedures.
Opportunity
We also apply non-hierarchical structures to ensure that opportunities and pay are distributed within our own team. We are clear and transparent during the hiring process, so that applicants are as fully informed as possible at all stages of the process. We chose to create a non-hierarchical working environment, where all Committee members are paid the same hourly rate and have equal decision making powers.
For our paid opportunities for our members, we pride ourselves to often programme against the expected norm, inviting a mix of genres, age groups and experiences as well as interdisciplinary workers to take up opportunities. Inviting both emerging and established writers to take part as guests and role models in our panels and workshops allows us to provide opportunities across our membership, regardless of experience or skill level, but also fosters deeper exchange and learning amongst participants. We also strive to remove the barriers that can come with accepting writing opportunities outside one’s community by providing travel, childcare and data bursaries.
Security
We believe that writers should be paid equitably and build thriving careers without putting their livelihoods at risk. We continue to advocate for fair pay for authors, artists and freelancers. As sector leaders, we will actively encourage partners to explore alternative ways of working and interacting as well as fairer rates.
Every team member on a long-term contract is on the same rate of pay regardless of title. We aim to give our operational team freelancers relatively long-term contracts of at least 9 months, typically longer, to reduce precarity.
We have a standard, fair Publishing Agreement, with contracts issued for projects and artists we work with for 3 months or more.
For writers we commission, whether publishing a single essay or poem, or longer-term project, fair pay not only demonstrates the types of fees they should expect and ask for, it also gives them more confidence in their work, with peer-mentoring, networking and is a step in their artistic career development. Ensuring all processes are as transparent as possible and writers are supported throughout all stages is vital in our work templates to communicate access needs, or how to write invoice are further ways in which we create fair and equitable conditions for all writers regardless of their experience.
We have published a rates transparency statement to clarify how we reach our fees and a link to learn how they are determined in our contracts. We have also added this to our opportunity form to clarify our rates to our community partners.
Fulfilment
We believe that work is only one dimension of a creative life and balance needs to be established and maintained. As a committee, our focus on creative writing is at the forefront, also for all artists who are delivering SBWN’s work. It is vital to ensure everyone’s role as SBWN allows writers to develop creatively, explore and bring their artistic self to a big proportion of the role. This is also hugely reflected in the work environment we create together by, for example, starting off every committee meeting with a free-write, but also by the career encouragement, celebration and development we practise as a committee. Within our committee, everyone has access to flexible working including flexible timelines and communication. We hold space for and encourage team members to be honest about their energy, capacity and mental health. For our members, we advocate for quiet rooms at events and encourage folks to stay off camera and participate as their capacity allows and in a way which serves them the most.
We also host consultations with relevant groups to gain insights from the wider community including experts beyond our areas of expertise or influence.
Respect
We believe every committee and community member and partner deserves respect. Everyone’s voices are treated equally, with respectful dialogue and discussion. We have a Safer Spaces Policy that we require anyone who comes into our spaces, online or in-person, as well as partners to agree to and while we believe there are instances for repair, we enforce the terms of this policy when there has been a breach of any of the terms outlined within the policy.
We also use an Access Policy which outlines the access we can provide at our events, as well as what we expect from our partners as they invite members of our community into their space.
We are in the early stages of a future project exploring the possibility of creating a framework for accountability including establishing an accountability pod to better address conflict and establish repair through a restorative justice lens, intentionally through a group not composed of committee members. We are striving to develop this for various formats including our member-led spaces, but also accountability and support infrastructure frameworks for partnerships and co-created spaces so that our standards can be upheld, and our practices continue to be strengthened.
We are currently recording our Fair Work policy in a more formal document but we have existing policies that fall under the dimensions of the framework.