English Heritage strike suspended

Negotiations between English Heritage (EH) and the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) have led to the union suspending plans for industrial action.

Some 400 members of the PCS who work across EH's sites last month voted in favour of strike action against the introduction of a premium pay range for posts that EH considers "hard to recruit and retain", which will receive 10 per cent more than posts in the standard pay range.

A PCS spokesman said: "EH is already recognised as a poor payer. Rather than raise pay rates to acceptable and fair levels across the board, the visitor operations staff are being asked to foot the bill for better pay rates for others.

"This is demoralising to hardworking staff, who are being made to feel second class despite them having delivered a first-class service. The ballot result speaks for itself and illustrates the strength of feeling and degree of anger amongst staff."

But a meeting between the management and union as Museums Journal was going to press resulted in an agreement by PCS to suspend strike action. It is thought an agreement on the pay grade proposals may yet be reached.

A spokesman for English Heritage said: "We are aware that PCS recently balloted its members at English Heritage for potential industrial action. We are happy to confirm that we are still talking to PCS and some progress has been made. We have agreed that there will be no strike action. Our properties are open as usual and there is no impact on our other work and services."

PCS was hopeful that a formal agreement would be reached by the beginning of this month.

Meanwhile, one in five scheduled monuments is at risk of neglect, decay or inappropriate change, according to EH's Heritage at Risk Register 2009.

Vince Holyoak, EH's senior policy adviser, said: "While the condition of the nation's listed historic buildings has improved, this year's register shows that, proportionately, England's other nationally designated heritage assets such as scheduled monuments still face much greater levels of risk.

"Working with owners and local authorities, we aim to achieve similar success in reducing risk to these important signposts to our distant past, but it won't be easy.

"Archaeological sites do not, even in more prosperous times, generate an income. Their importance as part of our heritage is nevertheless immeasurable. Their urgent needs must not be ignored."