CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY

That this House expresses its concern over pay awards for staff at the National Museum of Science and Industry (NMSI), which includes the Science Museum in London, the National Railway Museum in York and the National Media Museum in Bradford, during a period of great success for the institution and especially when NMSI is celebrating its centenary; notes that management has imposed a pay offer for the third year running, despite its rejection by trade unions; further notes that staff pay scales have been frozen at the top for three years and at the bottom for five years, resulting in many staff receiving derisory non-consolidated awards in the last two years; acknowledges that many employees who meet targets have received a less than one per cent. pay rise in total for each of the last two years; is concerned that staff below the maximum have received half of their 2009-10 pay award on a non-consolidated basis, which is in stark contrast to substantial bonuses paid to some NMSI senior executives in 2007-08; and calls on the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport to urgently intervene to resolve this dispute, with the help of the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service if necessary, to bring an end to minimal pay increases based on a biased performance appraisal system and also to address the continuing damage being done to staff morale, so it does not cause harm to the NMSI role as guardian and interpreter of the nation's industrial and scientific heritage.