[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2217311616-e1786467976604.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tTristram Hunt, director of London\u2019s 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 \u201cdignity at work,\u201d and says his absence from the negotiations is shocking and disrespectful.<\/p>\n
\n\tUnion members at the V&A East Storehouse voted to strike in July over working conditions, just weeks after the new facility\u2019s 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\u2019s central London facility, who had already voted in favor of action. The museum rejected the union\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe union says the museum has refused to negotiate better pay, including time and a half on bank holidays.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cOur members at the V&A feel completely disrespected by V&A management,\u201d PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said in an August 10 statement. \u201cThey work hard to deliver a service\u2014and when the director refuses to meet with workers it shows why they are voting for industrial action.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tIn that PCS statement, an unnamed V&A worker said that \u201c[Hunt\u2019s] 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.\u201d According to the museum\u2019s latest annual report, Hunt earns a base salary of between \u00a3175,000 and \u00a3180,000 (about $235,000 and $245,000).<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe have been negotiating with the unions in good faith since February and these negotiations are ongoing,\u201d a museum spokesperson told Ocula<\/em>. \u201cOur 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.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe museum hasn\u2019t 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 <\/em>that the institution maintains a \u201clongstanding commitment to paying at least the London Living Wage.\u201d <\/p>\n \n\tA V&A spokesperson did not immediately respond to an email from ARTnews <\/em>inquiring as to whether the museum is working toward accreditation.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWhen 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,\u201d one PCS member said in the union\u2019s July announcement calling for a vote on a strike action. \u201cWe all deserve fair pay, and it\u2019s not fair that an uplift for some should result in poverty wages for others.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cHealth 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,\u201d said a union member in July. The museum spokesperson told Ocula<\/em> the museum had implemented \u201cextensive measures\u201d to support staff during heatwaves.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/unions-call-va-director-absence-talks-shocking-disrespectful-1234794860\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2217311616-e1786467976604.jpg?w=1024″] Tristram Hunt, director of London\u2019s 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 \u201cdignity at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2091924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2091924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2091924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2091924\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2091924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2091924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2091924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}