PCS: Science museum staff in Friday 13th walkout over pay

Monday, 9 June 2008 12:00 AM

Up to 200 members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) will join colleagues from Prospect working for the National Museum of Science and Industry (NMSI) to take part in a one day strike this Friday (13 June) in a dispute over the imposition of a below inflation pay offer for 2007/08 and 2008/09.

The staff involved work for the NMSI in the Science Museum, London, the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford, the National Railway Museum, York, and the Science Museum Swindon in Wiltshire where starting salaries are as low as £11,342. The pay offer which was delayed by over a year means that most PCS members will receive less than the headline amount of 3% for both years.

The strike action is expected to disrupt preparations for a royal visit to National Railway Museum in York the following day.

The announcement comes on the same day as PCS members from across the civil service take part in today's Speak Up For Public Services event in Westminster. The lobby and rally organised by the TUC will see public servants coming together to call for fair pay and lobby over the future of public services.

Speaking at the rally Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary, is expected to say: "Real term pay cuts for Science Museum staff, whose salaries can be as low as £11,342, are completely unacceptable and will force down the living standards of a committed, hardworking workforce. It is a picture that the government seems happy to replicate across the rest of the civil and public service, with its misguided and discredited policy of below inflation pay, which is hitting some of the lowest paid.

"Science Museum staff and other PCS members are joining colleagues from across the public sector today in calling for a fair and just wage. Faced with job cuts, dogmatic privatisation and the insult of below inflation pay, civil and public servants are saying to government that enough is enough. Now is the time to start valuing the millions of public sector workers and now is the time to review its policy of below inflation pay."

ENDS

Notes to editors:

* For further information, interviews and comment contact Ragesh Khakhria on 020 7801 2764 or 07841 795365 or Alex Flynn national press officer on 020 7801 2747 or 07833 978216.

* The National Museum of Science and Industry is a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

* The Public and Commercial Services union represents civil and public servants in central government and workers in parts of the government transferred to the private sector. It has more than 315,000 members in over 200 departments and agencies and is the UK's sixth largest trade union, affiliated to the TUC. The general secretary is Mark Serwotka and the president Janice Godrich

Alex Flynn
National Press Officer
Public and Commercial Services Union
160 Falcon Rd
London SW11 2LN

Direct line: 020 7801 2747
Mobile: 07833 978 216
Fax: 020 7924 1847

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