Security guards on strike held a noisy rally outside the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum on Saturday.
A strike ballot opened on Friday for workers at the Victoria & Albert Museum, who are employees of the same security outsourcing company – Wilson James Ltd. The ballot closes on 6th December, and if they vote the same way as indicated by a consultative poll which was held earlier, there will likely be a unanimous backing for strike action before Christmas across all three museums.
The security staff have joined the United Voices of the World union (UVW), which has a good track record of representing workers in precarious sectors such as cleaners, security, kitchen and retail staff, often staffed largely by migrant workers. According to Petros Elia, co-founder and current General Secretary of UVW, directly-employed staff at the Science Museum are around 80% white, while the exploited outsourced staff are roughly 80% from racialised communities.
At the V&A museum, there are two in-house security staff who UVW claim are paid more than £17 per hour, while all the sub-contracted Wilson James staff are currently on £13.15, AND they get one week less annual leave, and four months less sick pay per year.
The strikers are asking for £16 per hour and better holiday and sick pay conditions, and they point to the fact that since 2011, they have had successive tiny rises that have not even kept up with inflation, leaving them with an effective pay cut of 22% in real terms over that period.
Among the claims made by the UVW strikers, they say that their employer Wilson James has not even paid increases in line with the London Living Wage at the time they came into force, and has refused to backdate pay rises accordingly. They claim that between 2019 and 2021 Wilson James doubled their own profits while giving the outsourced staff a measly 1.2% pay rise. They also accuse the company of refusing to enter into negotiations with the union, hiding behind legal loopholes and accounting tricks. They are concerned that the company may be trying to side-step employment law too, which prevents them from bringing in agency staff to replace striking workers. They believe the company is using agency staff at other non-striking sites, while relocating non-agency staff to cover strike days at the museums.
Real Media contacted Wilson James over these allegations, but in a statement from their “Creative Solutions Manager” (you couldn’t make it up!) which you can read below, they chose not to respond to many of the points put to them.
“At Wilson James, we place the highest value on our colleagues’ contributions to protecting and enhancing visitor experiences at the Natural History, Science and V&A Museums. Throughout the year, we have been in negotiations with our recognised unions at the museums and are currently seeking to engage with UVW through a formal recognition agreement, to facilitate dialogue with their members about pay and working conditions. Wilson James acknowledges UVW’s allegation that we intend to use agency workers during the planned strikes. We take these claims seriously, but strongly believe that this has no legal or factual basis. We are confident that our actions are fully compliant with the law, as no agency workers will be used to perform the duties of striking staff. Wilson James remains committed to lawful employment practice and to maintaining a safe, secure and respectful environment for all staff, stakeholders and museum visitors.”
