Press Releases
Industrial action at Wales' National Museums
Date:
2015-07-29
“We regret that some of Wales’ seven national museums will be affected by a series of strikes by the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) Union this weekend, regarding the future of Premium Payments - additional allowances paid to staff who work weekends and Bank Holidays.
“St Fagans National History Museum and National Museum Cardiff will be open on Saturday 1 August 2015 but with limited services. However, the National Waterfront Museum, Swansea; the National Slate Museum, Llanberis; the National Wool Museum, Dre-fach Felindre; and Big Pit National Coal Museum, Blaenafon will be closed all day on Saturday, 1 August 2015. Big Pit will also be closed on Sunday, 2 August. The National Roman Legion Museum, Caerleon will be unaffected.
“We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. We will limit disruption to our visitors and services as far as possible, and would advise those travelling to our sites to check our website for further information before doing so.
“We are very disappointed that PCS has taken the decision to go ahead with industrial action despite our entering into a process of conciliation with them via ACAS, which is ongoing. We will continue to do all we can to reach an agreement with PCS, as has been achieved with Prospect Union.
“Our proposal, which takes into account the interest of staff at all levels, includes increasing the basic pay of our lowest paid staff by 4% during the next financial year. This is in addition to the 4% increase those staff members have received since 2011.
“In an attempt to protect our staff as much as possible, we are also committed to introducing the Living Wage of £7.85 an hour, offering compensatory payments worth two years of allowances, which on average is £3,600 per person, and protect the pensions of those affected by the changes for the next five years.
“We believe this will mitigate the impact of losing Premium Payments, which are no longer paid by most other national museums.
“We have suffered a reduction of over 20% in our revenue budget over the last four years, and following the most recent announcement from the Westminster Government, things are not likely to get any easier in the near future.”