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Museums across Liverpool face being closed during the UK May bank holidays as an industrial dispute threatens to linger into the summer. Staff at National Museums Liverpool (NML) have been on strike since February over a one-off £1,500 cost of living payment they argue they are entitled to. Last week staff rejected NML’s final offer of £750 plus additional holidays.Ellie Shelton, National Museums Liverpool branch chair of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), says staff would be returning to work on Monday 15 April at the end of an eight-week strike period, which will be the longest in PCS history. She suggests that more strikes would be announced soon. “We have a mandate from members to strike until August,” she says. “We’ll meet with the national disputes committee this week to talk about next steps and work out further strike action.”NML’s seven sites include the Museum of Liverpool, International Slavery Museum, World Museum, Maritime Museum, Walker Art Gallery, Lady Lever Art Gallery and Dudley House. Many of these venues were closed over the UK‘s Easter bank holiday weekend (29 March-1 April) and Shelton says it now looks likely they will also be shut during the bank holiday weekends at the beginning and end of May.She says: “We all love our jobs. We don’t want to see the venues closed during such a busy period but we don’t have any other option. Staff feel undervalued as we see workers in the same sector at other museums getting the £1,500 payment. There is still a lot of anger from staff at how this has been managed.”The UK government offered the £1,500 payment to civil servants after a PCS wide strike last year. The NML cite government guidance that says museums are not required to match the civil service pay remit, however Shelton says NML was the only institution not to pay the cost of living payment from the 206 employers where PCS members went on strike last year. PCS members at the British Museum, for example, called off planned strike action after the institution agreed to pay the full amount.In an email to The Art Newspaper, NML says that of the 15 national museum services, it is one of ten that have not made the payment. When asked for the names of the other nine, a spokesperson from NML said they weren’t in a position to share names of the other organisations.In an online statement, meanwhile, NML said that it can’t afford the one-off payment because it had increased yearly staff pay instead. When approached for comment, NML referred The Art Newspaper to an update posted to the NML website, in which the group’s director Laura Pye said: ”As we have addressed with PCS, NML has never promised this payment. In fact, we were very clear when it was announced by the government 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.”A number of Liverpool MPs have visited the picket line at the Museum of Liverpool, including Kim Johnson, MP for Liverpool Riverside. In a video recorded outside the museum she said: “(NML) said they had no money originally yet they moved forward and offered £250, then that was increased to £750. The door for negotiation is still open.” She added: “NML is nothing without their staff so do the right thing and pay the uplift.”
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