PCS union staff at British Museum strike over half term

Security and visitor services staff at the museum are striking over half term

More than 100 staff members at the British Museum are striking over the half term period.

Members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) at the museum are set to be on strike until 19 February.

The museum has cancelled its programme of half term events and warned it might also have to close galleries at short notice. It says it is subject to government pay guidelines.

Visitors will need a pre-booked ticket to enter the museum during the strike.

The majority of the British Museum staff on strike are members of the visitor services and security teams.

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They are joined by PCS members at the DVLA and the Animal and Plant Health Agency, who are also striking in a dispute over pay, pensions, redundancy terms and job security.

One member of staff on the picket line said the 4% pay rise offered by the museum was "not really enough".

Another union member said she was struggling to pay her bills on time with her current salary and some of her colleagues were using food banks.

"It's just a desperate situation, it's so hard to come to work knowing that our colleagues are struggling so much on the wage that we get," she said.

Mark Serwotka, secretary of the PCS union, criticised the British Museum for "choosing not to invest in their staff".

Mark Serwotka criticised the museum for "not investing" in their staff

"We've given weeks of notice of this action and invited the management to make a better pay offer. The management, disgracefully, are not doing that."

He added that the museum was "an independent institution that is not bound by the government's pay restrictions".

In response, a British Museum spokesperson said the PCS union had balloted their members "on matters related to terms and conditions which are beyond the museum's control".

"The British Museum is subject to central government guidelines on pay.

"We worked hard with colleagues internally, within the unions and across government and reached a conclusion to our 2022/23 pay review, which saw the majority of staff at the museum receive consolidated increases to pay of between 4-5%."

The museum said that the PCS union first notified them of their plans for industrial action on 27 January.

A queue has formed outside the entrance as a result of reduced services

One visitor called the staff members on strike "an embarrassment to the country".

She said members of the PCS union at the museum "could go on strike 51 weeks in this year and they choose half term when children can come and enjoy it free with their parents".

"They're punishing children this week, not the government."

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