Planned Strike at London’s V&A Museum Suspended After Improved Pay Offer, Acas Talks to Follow

A planned strike at the Victoria and Albert (V&A) museum in London has been suspended. The decision came on Monday after museum management made an improved pay offer, so the V&A’s London sites will remain open over half-term.

Museum staff who are members of the Prospect and Public and Commercial Services (PCS) unions had voted to strike on Thursday and Friday in a dispute over pay and working conditions, including inadequate toilet and hydration breaks.

The strike would have closed the V&A’s main galleries in South Kensington. V&A East, V&A Storehouse and Young V&A in east London were also covered by the strike.

In a statement, PCS said strikes planned for 29 and 30 October had been suspended to allow Acas-facilitated talks to take place, following an improved offer from the museum. Prospect and the V&A also confirmed the strike had been suspended while negotiations continued.

Neither the unions nor the V&A would confirm details of the improved offer. A source said details of the offer were not being shared at this stage, other than that negotiations had been re-entered.

The unions are demanding a 4% pay increase for staff earning above the living wage, for the V&A to become an accredited London living-wage employer within 12 months, and time-and-a-half pay for bank holiday working. On conditions, they are seeking improvements to working during heatwaves and better food at the museum’s east London sites.

In July, when staff first voted to strike, a V&A spokesperson said extensive measures had been introduced to help staff during the heatwave, including additional rest breaks and closing some galleries during the hottest periods. Earlier this month, Prospect general secretary Mike Clancy called on the V&A’s director, former Labour MP Tristram Hunt, to take part in the negotiations himself, saying his absence showed the level of disdain in which he held his staff.

The London living wage is now £15.45 an hour. The V&A has said all its staff are paid at least this rate, but some of the museum’s outsourced contractors are not. V&A Dundee, which is not involved in the dispute, is an accredited living-wage employer.