Liverpool museums remain shut as union rejects pay offer

Museums across Liverpool are expected to stay closed after the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) rejected a pay offer from National Museums Liverpool (NML).

In a post, Laura Pye, Director of National Museums Liverpool, said that "with a heavy heart", NML's five venues will remain mostly closed until at least 14 April, when the current strike period is due to end.

More than 200 NML staff began a two-month strike on 17 February in a dispute over a cost-of-living payment after 94% of employees balloted by PCS backed a walkout.

The union says NML is the only government employer not to pay its staff an agreed-upon £1,500 cost-of-living payment. The government introduced the retrospective payment for civil servants as part of a pay deal for 2022-2023 following a campaign by PCS to help its members cope with soaring inflation.

However, in her post, Pye said, “NML has never promised this payment. In fact, we were very clear when the government announced that unless an additional grant in aid payment was given to us to cover this, we would be unable to pay it.

“National government has also been very clear that the payment was promised to civil servants, and because NML colleagues are not civil servants, they were not in scope.”

She also claimed that of the 15 National Museums services, NML is one of 10 that has not been able to pay the £1,500 in addition to the additional pay awards agreed upon.

The latest offer made to PCS Union members on 20 March included a £750 one-off non-consolidated payment, an increase in annual leave to 30 days plus Bank Holidays, a commitment to shut down the venues every Christmas Eve, and the provision of complimentary tea, coffee, and milk in staff rooms.