PCS Union

Public and Commercial Union

"The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) is one of the largest trade unions in the UK, with about 200,000 members."

PCS (Public & Commercial Sector) is a trade union that represents around 200,000 civil servants working in many different areas. The PCS Culture Sector is the voice for museum, gallery and heritage workers, and represents over 3,000 workers across arts & culture. This includes fighting for better terms & conditions in world-renowned institutions such as the British Museum, the National Gallery, Tate, the British Library, representing workers in Scotland & Wales, National Museums Liverpool, English Heritage or the Department for Culture, Media & Sport and also in private companies providing security, visitor services or cleaning in museums & galleries.

Twitter: @PCSCultureGroup

Facebook: www.facebook.com/PCSCultureSector/

Latest news: https://www.pcs.org.uk/pcs-culture-group/latest-news

PCs union is committed to fight for Equality at work. Read the recent PCS Culture Group statement and call for action in solidarity of Black Lives Matters.

We have also got an ongoing petition to call for emergency funding to rescue the Arts & Culture sector. Despite government announcing funding, workers are still paying for the Covid crisis and additional money is required.

Culture In Crisis

Many of those in the cultural sector are facing job loss and unfair redundancies. Most unions, such as PCS, are standing with their fellow workers.

Currently, PCS Culture is fighting against hundreds of redundancies in the sector and here are their current campaigns:

Tate

Twitter: @Tate_United

Facebook: www.facebook.com/AgiTate-420032988201491/

Instagram: www.instagram.com/tate_united/

Tate Enterprise have announced in June that over 200 staff, across all sites, will be made redundant. Many of these workers are amongst the lowest paid staff on the Tate estate (with some at risk earning little more than the National Minimum Wage) and in some of the most diverse teams across Tate. The staff in question are also those colleagues at the Tate with the least redundancy rights, and Tate Enterprise have confirmed they will offer no more than statutory redundancy. Leaving many staff with little more than a month’s pay before they are left jobless in a crashed economy. Not even enough money to carry them through the Universal Credit wait time.

PCS is clear that the redundancies at Tate Commerce are unnecessary. We are asking for just 10% of the expected government bailout of the gallery to save hundreds of jobs. Members of the union and the public alike are right to ask, if the financial situation at the gallery is so dire, then why are their senior executives still earning eye watering salaries way over £100,000?

We held a successful protest of Cultural workers at the Southbank Centre and National Theatre on 27th July, day of Tate reopening. Now PCS have given the employer notice that our members will be striking on the 18, 19, 21 and 22 August with further dates to be announced on Monday. If like us you feel that these redundancies are unjust, and Tate has acted poorly as an employer you can help PCS members at Tate Enterprise in the following ways:

1) Attend the post-picket protests from 11.30am on 18 August and 22 at Tate Modern and 21 August at Tate Britain.

2) Donate to our PCS Tate Commerce Strike fund.

3) Tweet/Post your support for PCS Tate Commerce members using the #CrisisInCulture

Southbank Centre

Twitter: @PCS_Southbank

Instagram: www.instagram.com/pcs_southbank/

As the Southbank Centre prepares to make up to 70% of its workforce redundant, it has proposed changes to previously agreed redundancy terms that will deny £1.4million in payouts to staff facing future unemployment. The redundancies and payouts will disproportionately affect BAME staff with at least 71 out of 365 (as some teams have not yet confirmed their "at risk" pools) positions under threat currently filled by BAME people. Should all 365 positions be eliminated, Southbank Centre will go from having a 20% BAME workforce to just 14% BAME workforce.

Southbank Centre claims it is unable to provide the previously agreed redundancy terms of three weeks pay for every year of service and is seeking to impose vastly reduced new terms on staff.

The executive team of Southbank Centre has informed staff that the government's £1.5billion arts bailout package will not help as the centre believes it will not be eligible for further funding. The scale of the proposed redundancies at Southbank Centre is huge with at least 365 staff out of 575 at risk of redundancy. The proposals affect all teams but some, such as Visitor Experience and Ticketing, are at greater risk as Southbank Centre now expects the Royal Festival Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall to be completely closed until April 2021.

We held a successful protest of Cultural workers at the Southbank Centre and National Theatre on 1st August.

Support workers and sign their open letter of the Southbank SOS website.

Historical Royal Palaces

Facebook: www.facebook.com/Justice4HRPworkers/

As a Charitable Trust the Historic Royal Palaces are heavily dependant on income generated by the paying public and have no government subsidy. The massive loss of income forecasted means that its business model as a charitable trust, dependent on visitor income, is no longer financially viable.

In order to resolve its financial predicament the Historic Royal Palaces has rushed to take measures that will have a devastating effect on staff.

These include:

25% cut in the wage bill by mass redundancies
20% cut in pay for both furloughed staff and staff still currently working
Slashing employer pensions contributions

The pace of redundancies is not as fast as in other institutions but PCS is fighting and organise members to stop it.

Royal Households

The Royal Household has decided to take drastic action to repair the financial damage that the pandemic has caused, by introducing three tiers of cuts.

What's involved:

A pay freeze for the whole Royal Household, to be reassessed in the spring of 2021.
The Royal Household want to save 20% on their wage bill, with the Royal Collection Trust (RCT) being the only department expected to face the cuts. Firstly by voluntary severance but then by redundancies if not enough staff come forward.
Additional savings are proposed by cutting the Royal Household pension contribution for the Royal Collection Trust staff only, from 15% to 8%. The other four departments in the Royal Household will be unaffected.

PCS believe this is outrageously unfair. The RCT has contributed £80 million in facilities management fees to the cost of running the Royal Household in the past 20 years. However the RCT is the only department of the Royal Household to be facing jobs and pensions cuts despite being a cash cow for the Royal Household for many years.

Keep up-to-date via the PCS Culture Group social media and website.