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Poverty pay to mind the masterpieces

17 February 2010

Gallery staff paid poverty wages to guard multi-million pound artworks almost entirely closed one of London's most prestigious attractions in a walkout.

PCS members at the capital’s National Gallery were on strike for two hours at lunchtime yesterday as part of their campaign for a living wage. The BBC website reported that only 13 of the gallery's 66 rooms were open during the action.

National Gallery walkout

National Gallery staff earning poverty pay to guard famous artworks walked out on strike for two hours (Photo: Jess Hurd)

Although the gallery recently acquired what one PCS member described on the BBC’s Newsnight programme as "a very beautiful painting" by Titian for £50 million, the person guarding that painting could be earning less than £7 an hour.

The strike was the first in a series of walkouts planned by members angry at the imposition of a pay award, and came on the day the Office for National Statistics announced (PDF) the consumer prices index measure of inflation had risen to 3.5% from 2.9% in December.

Interviewing strikers in Trafalgar Square during the walkout, Newsnight presenter Paul Mason pointed out that "inflation is real" for museum staff earning just £15,000 a year and facing a 1% pay increase.

The imposed award leaves warders and security staff – who protect artworks by Canaletto, Monet, Turner and Van Gogh – earning a basic salary 60p less than London Mayor Boris Johnson’s recommended London living wage of £7.60 an hour.

Later in the programme, in a debate with John Redwood, Tory spokesman on 'economic competitiveness', PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "We have 100,000 members on under £15,000 a year and we’re told to tighten our belts.

"There’s £120 billion in avoided tax and evaded tax that if we started collecting would mean that Alistair Darling and David Cameron would not just have to talk about job cuts, they could actually talk about the rich paying their share."

"What we really need is proper investment," Mark added. "We need to treat the staff with respect and we need to actually understand they're not the cause of the problem, they're actually dealing with the causes of the recession."

 

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