Unions Call V&A Director’s Absence from Contract Negotiation Talks ‘Shocking’ and ‘Disrespectful’

Tristram Hunt, director of London’s Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A), is on the receiving end of criticism from the two unions, Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) and Prospect, which have issued a joint statement calling him to the bargaining table. The union is striking over pay, working conditions, and “dignity at work,” and says his absence from the negotiations is shocking and disrespectful.

Union members at the V&A East Storehouse voted to strike in July over working conditions, just weeks after the new facility’s splashy reveal. They said workers were not given enough time to use the restroom or even drink water and called for two paid breaks per shift. They joined their counterparts in at the museum’s central London facility, who had already voted in favor of action. The museum rejected the union’s characterization of working conditions, saying all staff had sufficient access to water and bathroom breaks, but changed its paid break policy this month to grant the requested breaks.

The union says the museum has refused to negotiate better pay, including time and a half on bank holidays.

“Our members at the V&A feel completely disrespected by V&A management,” PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said in an August 10 statement. “They work hard to deliver a service—and when the director refuses to meet with workers it shows why they are voting for industrial action.”

In that PCS statement, an unnamed V&A worker said that “[Hunt’s] refusal to enter talks shows just how little he thinks of the workers who allow him to earn a huge six-figure salary, many of whom he will not commit to paying a proper wage.” According to the museum’s latest annual report, Hunt earns a base salary of between £175,000 and £180,000 (about $235,000 and $245,000).

“We have been negotiating with the unions in good faith since February and these negotiations are ongoing,” a museum spokesperson told Ocula. “Our offer sees a 3.6 percent increase in the overall pay bill, an above inflation pay award as a minimum, and 6.9 percent increase for our lowest paid colleagues.”

The museum hasn’t signed on to the voluntary Real Living Wage accreditation issued by the Living Wage Foundation, as other UK cultural organizations, including the Wallace Collection, Greenwich Theatre, and the Multi Story Orchestra, have done. A museum spokesperson told Ocula that the institution maintains a “longstanding commitment to paying at least the London Living Wage.”

A V&A spokesperson did not immediately respond to an email from ARTnews inquiring as to whether the museum is working toward accreditation.

“When we mention that curators in other institutions have higher salaries, we are told a bigger increase for us would only be possible if they lower pay for our front of house colleagues,” one PCS member said in the union’s July announcement calling for a vote on a strike action. “We all deserve fair pay, and it’s not fair that an uplift for some should result in poverty wages for others.”

The searing heat wave across Europe has driven the union to call for museums to close when temperatures reach 86 degrees Fahrenheit and to institute heat mitigation measures for back-of-house staff. 

“Health and safety of staff, whether concerning regular access to water or suitable staffing to evacuate the building, is at best an afterthought and at worst actively ignored,” said a union member in July. The museum spokesperson told Ocula the museum had implemented “extensive measures” to support staff during heatwaves.