Curse of Low Pay

By New Worker correspondent

In their line of duty archaeologists sometimes have to brave many dangers, such as working in damp ditches whilst digging out half a leather boot or braving the curse of the mummy. Archæologists employed by the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) face more a mundane problem however – low pay.

Prospect members working at MOLA have just voted 78 per cent in favour of strike action (with 94 per cent for action short of a strike) over pay and the failure of their management (the wealthiest local authority in Britain, if not the world) to implement a pay structure. Apart from work for the museum, MOLA’s 300 staff undertake archaeological work on behalf of clients in London and further afield, including Crossrail and HS2.

In June the bosses imposed a 2.5 per cent pay award even though it had been rejected by union members who have long been suffering financial hardship due to low pay in one of the most expensive cities in the world.

The dispute also concerns a pay structure that MOLA executive management promised would be in place by April 2019. This undertaking was made to settle an industrial dispute last year but they have now reneged on their commitment. Had the pay structure been in place as promised then staff would have received an incremental rise in addition to a cost-of-living award.

Andy Bye, Prospect’s negotiator, said: “MOLA is in crisis with experienced staff leaving and market share in London going to its main competitor which pays archæologists £2,000 more per year.

“Executive managers have ignored the views of staff and the impact their pay policy and management style is having on MOLA as a whole. With this vote for industrial action, MOLA staff have said enough is enough. If management don’t start listening and paying a fair wage then it’s hard to see how MOLA can continue to operate competitively.”

Museum News

By New Worker correspondent

Workers at the Museum of London and the city’s Docklands Museum have had a below-inflation pay rise imposed by Britain’s richest local authority, the Corporation of the City of London. Trade union Prospect is to ballot its members at the Museum over the 1.5 per cent rise.

This is just the latest in a number of below-inflation pay rises that left workers at the museums with a nine per cent real-term pay cut since 2014. This austerity naturally did not apply to the director’s salary, which increased in real terms by five per cent including bonus last year, and the number of bosses earning over £100,000 year has doubled.

Sharon Brown, Prospect negotiations officer, said: “Our members are finding it increasingly difficult to cope on such low wages and this 1.5 per cent pay rise is especially galling when the director saw her pay increase by five per cent last year when you include bonus.

“The Museum will claim that with performance pay their offer achieves parity with inflation but an employee shouldn’t have to perform significantly above job requirements just to keep up with the cost of living. People need to be able to plan their finances and look after their families. A bonus should give people the possibility of improving their quality of life, not simply bring them up to the level they need to survive.”

Staff at the Science Museum Group (SMG) are also going to on strike in a dispute over pay.

A 24-hour strike has been scheduled for Friday, 30th August with a work-to-rule earlier that week.

Once again the issue was an imposed 1.5 per cent pay rise. Prospect said this was just the latest in a series of below-inflation pay rises that left workers with a 13 per cent real-terms pay cut since 2010, and once again the bosses were doing well. Members voted to reject the deal and voted 79.3 per cent in favour of strike action, with 94.8 per cent saying that they were prepared to take part in action short of a strike.

Sharon Brown said: “Members in SMG love their jobs but they cannot carry on with year after year of real-terms pay cuts. The group has left us with no option but to strike.

“I’m sure that most of the million or so people visiting SMG museums this summer will be astounded at how poorly its staff are paid, especially when they see that the director's pay has increased by a third in just four years.”

The union meekly added that it was not the intention of members to close the museums as a result of the action.

The union said the SMG’s minimum hourly rate is significantly below the voluntary Real Living Wage of £9 per hour and £10.55 in London.

The dispute covers not just the Science Museum at South Kensington but the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford, the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, the National Railway Museum in York, Blythe House in London and the National Collections Centre in Wroughton, Wiltshire.

‘Carillion Mark Two’

By New Worker correspondent

Unions are demanding that the government live up to its responsibilities to workers at Interserve, whose share price collapsed last week following the revelation that it was carrying £500 million debt and was planning to issue new shares that would be its second rescue this year. This came in the wake of it winning a £25-million contract to redevelop the Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr.

Interserve has contracts for cleaning, security, meals, waste management and maintenance worth £35-million at King George Hospital in east London. Other contracts include improving the M5 Junction-6 near Worcester, refurbishing the Rotherham Interchange bus station, and upgrading sewers and water pipes for Northumbrian Water. It is also the largest provider of probation services in England and Wales, supervising about 40,000 “medium–low risk offenders” for the Ministry of Justice.

Interserve blames its troubles on cancellations and delays on construction contracts as well as struggling waste-to-energy projects in Derby and Glasgow, but denies being in serious trouble.

Unite the union has demanded that ministers explain their contingency plans, saying that 1,200 of their members were at risk if their restructuring failed. It denounced the government’s “unhealthy obsession” with the outsourcing of public services, which was “a road to nowhere with the taxpayer picking up the tab”.

Unite assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail said: “The financial difficulties that Interserve finds itself in is another dire warning of the dangers of outsourcing public services for private profit. We could be facing Carillion Mark Two. The mistakes made before the collapse of Carillon in January 2018 appear in danger of being repeated – if so, this could see the hard pressed taxpayer picking up the tab – yet again.”

The union supports a temporary ban on Interserve bidding for public sector contracts whilst it attempts to resolve its financial problems.

“The moral is that public services should be provided by the public sector, as the record of these outsourcing behemoths has been woeful – it has been proven to be the road to nowhere.

“Unite has called for a public inquiry into the Carillion debacle and today we would ask that such an inquiry should embrace the events leading up to the present situation at Interserve.

“Another classic example of the government’s unhealthy obsession with outsourcing is the fate of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) firefighters, vital to the UK’s national security.

“In the summer, the MoD firefighters’ contact was awarded to Capita, despite its own financial problems, but then this was challenged by rival outsourcer Serco – and this has yet to be resolved.”

Ben Middleton, national secretary of high-caste civil service union Prospect, announced the setting up of a union helpline and bleated that: “Whilst members have been aware for some time of the financial difficulties facing the company, they will understandably be concerned by these latest developments. Anxiety over job security is the last thing anyone wants to think about in the run up to Christmas. Prospect will be seeking assurances that members’ jobs will be secured and pressing Government to ensure this doesn’t become another Carillion situation.”

The RMT transport union General Secretary Mick Cash took a more robust line, saying that his union is “calling for immediate action to begin transferring the Interserve transport sector contracts in-house to avoid a repeat of the Carillion chaos”, before making the more general point that: “‎Once again we see the reality of bandit capitalism and its toxic impact on our public services. The time has come to end this obsession with the private sector speculators and return to the principles of public services run and owned by the public, free from this corrosive nonsense.”