More strikes at the National Gallery?
January 20 2015
Picture: Museums Journal
Polly Toynbee has written about low pay in The Guardian today, and features the ongoing dispute about the National Gallery's room wardens as an example. Regular readers may remember that there are plans by the National Gallery to outsource, or privatise, some services such as the gallery wardens. Here are some of Toynbee's more interesting claims:
- Wardens are paid on average about £17,400 per annum. There are varying rates of pay for longer-serving members of staff. There are 400 'gallery assistants'.
- The National Gallery "is the only national museum in London not paying the living wage." If true, this is to be deprecated. The 'living wage' is different from the government mandated minimum wage, and is calculated independently by charities. In the UK it is currently calculated at £7.85 an hour, and in London at £9.15. Toynbee does not specify which figure she is using. The minimum wage is currently £6.15 an hour. There are 12 'national museums' in London.
- According to Toynbee 'all gallery services go out to tender in April, something no other national gallery or museum has done. That includes visitor services, school bookings, public information and even complaints.'
- By law, current warden pay rates would have to be maintained by the new contractor. Toynbee claims that the wardens might though be transferred to another duty within the provatised company, such as guarding a car park. But this is evidently nonsense, for it wouldn't ever be cost effective for a contractor to take a trained gallery warden and waste them on another duty like a car park.
- Most trustees want to keep the wardens in house, and it is suggested that the recent move to guard the Rembrandt exhibition with a private contractor CIS, was done to 'scare' the PCS union, who represent the wardens, into making concessions.
Poynbee doesn't mention the more reasonable reasons the National Gallery want to change the wardens' working conditions - such as having one guard for two of some of the smaller rooms - and nor does she say anything about the wardens' alarming propensity to go on strike, especially during crucial exhibitions.
- PCS has called for a five day strike over the latest proposals.
It's also worth noting that the privately guarded Rembrandt show closed yesterday, and as far as I'm aware, there were no security dramas at all (despite dire warnings in this anti-National Gallery briefing). So, whether we like it or not, CIS showed that they can manage the job.
An interesting problem for the new director...
Update - a reader alerts me to this page on the NG website, detailing their payscales. "Gallery Assistants and Security Staff" are in Band 10 and start at £15,468-£17,648. Not enough. And let's not forget that pay in museums is pretty crummy full stop. That Tate curatorship I mentioned last year was for £23,360.
