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National Gallery staff began their five-day strike yesterday against plans to privatise jobs even as managers suspended a senior union rep on the eve of the walkout.
Public-sector union PCS said that the plan to switch visitor services to a private company “threatens the reputation of the country’s second most visited major attraction.”
Management suspended senior union representative Candy Udwin on Monday for allegedly “breaching commercial confidentiality,” PCS said, by giving information to a full-time union official, including information about the costs of using profiteers.
General secretary Mark Serwotka, who joined the picket line, said: “This dispute and the sell-off plan are putting the global reputation of the National Gallery at risk.
“Suspending one of our senior reps on the eve of our strike is a disproportionate act of unfathomable bad faith and not only should she be reinstated immediately, the gallery must commit itself to full and proper negotiations.”
Talks took place with conciliation Service Acas last week.
PCS said it remained committed to negotiations but that the dispute had worsened following the suspension of Ms Udwin.
“Staff are furious that one of their colleagues, a senior rep and member of the negotiating team at Acas, has been suspended by the gallery in what we believe is a disproportionate act of bad faith,” said a union spokesman.
National Gallery director Nicholas Penny said that “change is essential” when it is expected to thrive as a public entity with reduced public money.
