Prospect reps at the Science Museum Group have made a significant breakthrough on pay.

Minimum hourly rates will increase by 6.9% to £9.30 outside London and by 5.5% to £10.75 in London from 1 April 2020.  This is in line with the current Real Living and London Living Wage rates.

Other elements of the offer include:

• a 3% increase on basic salaries for employees earning up to, and including, £30,000
• a 2.1% increase on basic salaries for employees earning £30,001 and above
• a commitment to carry out a wider review of SMG’s pay system with priority given to conducting an equal pay audit.

Prospect negotiator Sharon Brown said: “Prospect fought really hard to achieve a significant pay increase for this year. We would not have achieved that without the industrial action that Prospect members took last year to demonstrate that low pay in SMG is unacceptable.

“Although the offer does not meet all aspects of our pay claim, we believe it goes a long way towards meeting our original negotiating aims and delivers a significant above-inflation increase for almost seven in 10 SMG staff.

“We have a long way to go, but we will continue to push SMG to improve pay and other working conditions for our members," Brown concluded.

SMG’s branch executive committee is recommending that members accept the offer because:

• SMG has met its commitment to paying the Real Living and London Living wage sooner than originally stated; this will provide an average pay increase of 6.2% for the lowest paid staff
• the 3% offer for staff earning up to £30,000 delivers an above-inflation pay increase for the first time in many years; this also goes some way to addressing the ‘salary bunching’ that members have suffered due to higher increases at the lowest levels
• the 2.1% offer for staff earning above £30,000 will provide an improved increase on previous years, almost meeting the rate of inflation (the RPI in December 2019 was 2.2%).

Prospect will ballot all members on the offer; the ballot will close on 11 March 2020.