The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) warned that National Museums Scotland (NMS) could expect further action over a dispute about weekend pay for gallery attendants, following a Boxing Day strike that forced the National Museum of Scotland to close.
The dispute originated in January 2011 when NMS removed a weekend allowance for new gallery attendants, against calls from PCS to maintain the payments.
When NMS refused to reintroduce the allowance following a pay review in November last year, the trade union’s 147 members across NMS’s museums voted for the Boxing Day strike.
Albie O’Neill at PCS said: “We will be seeking to meet again with NMS management in the near future. If they continue to reject our demands then clearly members will look at further action. This is not a one-off protest. This is about getting those payments back.”
According to O’Neill National Galleries Scotland continues to pay a similar premium for weekend work by its gallery attendants following negotiations with the union last year.
He said: “If National Galleries Scotland can change its mind then NMS can too.”
A spokesman for NMS said: “Like many other public sector organisations, NMS has had to make a wide range of changes in order to manage the reduced budgets, which have been a result of the financial crisis.
“These changes have included reducing staff numbers, reducing a range of budgets, constraining some services and introducing a change to some terms and conditions for staff newly appointed to ensure that we could continue to operate within the funding available.
“The changes to weekend premia came into force three years ago in January 2011 for new staff. We have maintained these payments for staff employed prior to 2011 and as staff retire and move on these will be phased out. Only around half of our staff who work weekends receive a premium payment and such payments are no longer common within organisations in our sector.”
Update
07.01.2014
We wrote that the strike forced all of NMS's museums to close on Boxing Day. In fact, only the National Museum of Scotland was forced to close - the other museums were closed for the holidays.
The dispute originated in January 2011 when NMS removed a weekend allowance for new gallery attendants, against calls from PCS to maintain the payments.
When NMS refused to reintroduce the allowance following a pay review in November last year, the trade union’s 147 members across NMS’s museums voted for the Boxing Day strike.
Albie O’Neill at PCS said: “We will be seeking to meet again with NMS management in the near future. If they continue to reject our demands then clearly members will look at further action. This is not a one-off protest. This is about getting those payments back.”
According to O’Neill National Galleries Scotland continues to pay a similar premium for weekend work by its gallery attendants following negotiations with the union last year.
He said: “If National Galleries Scotland can change its mind then NMS can too.”
A spokesman for NMS said: “Like many other public sector organisations, NMS has had to make a wide range of changes in order to manage the reduced budgets, which have been a result of the financial crisis.
“These changes have included reducing staff numbers, reducing a range of budgets, constraining some services and introducing a change to some terms and conditions for staff newly appointed to ensure that we could continue to operate within the funding available.
“The changes to weekend premia came into force three years ago in January 2011 for new staff. We have maintained these payments for staff employed prior to 2011 and as staff retire and move on these will be phased out. Only around half of our staff who work weekends receive a premium payment and such payments are no longer common within organisations in our sector.”
Update
07.01.2014
We wrote that the strike forced all of NMS's museums to close on Boxing Day. In fact, only the National Museum of Scotland was forced to close - the other museums were closed for the holidays.
