Castles may close in staff pay battle

Jun 24 2009 by Sam Wood, The Journal

PCS negotiations officer for English Heritage Catherine Craig said: “English Heritage is already recognised as a poor payer. Rather than raise pay rates to acceptable and fair levels across the board, the visitor operations staff are being asked to foot the bill for better pay rates for others.

“This is demoralising to hard-working staff who are being made to feel second class despite them having delivered a first-class service.” PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “These proposals are unfair and divisive and will drive down already pitiful levels of pay. Far from earning vast sums, the custodians of England’s heritage, like others in civil and public services, have had to endure low pay and pay cuts in real terms.

“English Heritage need to recognise the valuable role that staff play by stepping back from introducing a two-tier pay system.”

An English Heritage spokeswoman said: “We are planning to modernise our pay system to improve career progression, try to ensure equal pay, introduce market-related pay for all staff and a minimum increase of 2% for all employees in year one. There is no intention to create job cuts as part of pay reform. Our other union, Prospect, voted overwhelmingly to accept the offer.

“Our view is that we don’t consider ourselves to be in dispute with the PCS union because talks are still ongoing. The vote on strike action is therefore premature.”