V&A Staff Ballot for Strike Over Pay and Heat Safety
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- PCS launched a strike ballot on 23 July covering 300+ workers at four V&A sites — South Kensington, V&A East Museum, V&A East Storehouse, and Young V&A — thought to be one of the first UK ballots to center heatwave workplace conditions.
- The union is demanding a minimum 4% pay rise, automatic closure of public areas above 30C, heat mitigation for back-of-house staff, and permission for V&A East Storehouse workers to carry and drink water on the gallery floor.
- V&A pays all direct staff at least the £14.80 London living wage but has not secured accredited living wage employer status; some outsourced contractors fall below that rate, while sister site V&A Dundee is accredited.
- Prospect is separately balloting V&A members for strike action over pay and conditions, with its ballot closing on 29 July.
- V&A management has offered a 3.6% overall pay bill increase, a 6.9% rise for its lowest-paid colleagues, and says it closed several South Kensington galleries and Young V&A altogether on 11 days during the heatwave with additional rest breaks.
- Nick Marro, PCS culture secretary, accused management of refusing water access and living wage accreditation while claiming it cannot afford a decent pay rise, calling it 'unfair, it's unsafe.'
Why it matters: Two unions now balloting simultaneously at a flagship national museum escalates this from a routine pay dispute into a potential multi-union walkout. The specific flashpoints — back-of-house workers denied water during heatwaves and outsourced contractors earning below the £14.80 London living wage — expose structural gaps that outlast this pay round, and the heatwave framing could set a precedent for how UK cultural institutions adapt working conditions to rising temperatures.
