Employees at a coal mining museum charity are set to strike for four weeks after failing to agree on a pay increase.
Yesterday, UNISON Wakefield District announced that over 40 employees at the National Coal Mining Museum would strike on Wednesday “after managers failed to provide an improved pay offer in talks”.
The workers’ union claimed that the charity had agreed to its proposed pay increase in June but withdrew from the deal days later.
However, the charity said that the June offer was “suggested as part of the negotiation process and was at no point agreed”.
Pay negotiations
The National Coal Mining Museum initially offered a 5% pay rise to all staff in March, which was rejected despite the charity claiming it would have amounted to a “cumulative increase of 14% over two years”.
Three months later, according to UNISON, the charity made a second offer of a £1 per hour uplift for mine guides and 5% for everyone else in talks held via conciliatory body Acas.
The union warned this proposal could result in a greater pay rise for men, who make up the team of mine guides, than women employed elsewhere at the charity.
UNISON therefore proposed a 5% or £1 per hour increase for all staff, whichever is greater, which the union claimed the charity’s management agreed to on 6 June before pulling out of the deal 11 days later.
The charity said the offer would have equated to a more than 8% increase for some staff, which is “simply unaffordable”.
At a meeting with the charity’s management last week, UNISON said the former offered an uplift of 80p an hour or 5% for all workers, whichever is the greater.
Union: ‘Utter disrespect towards staff’
UNISON said it was disappointing that senior museum officials are denying that the £1 an hour or 5% offer was ever a firm proposal.
“The union’s understanding is that these were pay offers,” it said in a statement.
“This behaviour shows utter disrespect towards the staff who bring the National Coal Mining Museum to life through their storytelling.”
The union criticised the salaries of the charity’s highest-paid managers, and said “the pay gap between the highest-paid employee and the lowest is thought to be more than £120,000”.
“The museum has made an operating surplus of more than half a million pounds [£597,000]”, it said.
“It’s also been in surplus for the preceding four financial years. The museum has £10m in reserves.
“UNISON believes the £1 per hour or 5% option would only add approximately £150,000 to the existing pay bill, still leaving the museum with an operating surplus of more than £400,000.
“The museum has provided no evidence to disprove the union’s calculations.”
Charity facing ‘considerable financial pressures’
The National Coal Mining Museum said the union’s proposal was never agreed and that accepting it would “jeopardise people’s jobs across the organisation and threaten the long-term sustainability of the museum”.
In an updated statement, the charity said its proposed 80p or 5% uplift “equates to a pay rise of over 6% for many and is much higher than pay settlements in the public sector including police, local government, schools and other museums”.
“This increased offer was rejected by UNISON. The union refused to share our revised offer with their members to see if they wished to accept it,” it added.
“As a charitable organisation, the museum, which relies on external funding and donations, continues to face considerable financial pressures.
“We hope UNISON will reconsider their position. We remain committed to working closely with union representatives in the hope of a resolution.”
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