Companies bidding for sub-contractor contracts from sportscotland will have to offer their staff the Scottish Living Wage.

The national agency for sport has become a Living Wage-accredited employer in Scotland, ensuring that employees get paid at least £8.25 per hour.

While sportscotland has paid its staff at least that amount for a “considerable period of time”, it now expects the companies it pays for outsourced work to do likewise. Any organisation bidding for work – including the maintenance of its centres, catering, cleaning etc – will have to commit to the requirement for the duration of the contract.

Although the requirement has not yet been extended to sportscotland’s funding partners, the quango is making informal recommendations about providing at least the Living Wage.

As a result of sportscotland becoming a Living Wage-accredited employer, nine sub-contracted members of staff have been moved in-house to receive the wage. When the body’s National Centre Inverclyde re-opens next spring, it will tender out its maintenance, cleaning and catering contracts.

Stewart Harris, sportscotland chief executive, said that it was “really important for people to be paid a decent wage” and that the organisation was working with The Poverty Alliance.

“This accreditation will help enhance our reputation as an employer of choice, create a better working environment, which encourages greater staff engagement, and is fundamentally the right thing to do,” he added.

Fair work cabinet secretary, Roseanna Cunningham, said the move sent “the right message to the world of sport”.

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