English Heritage And The Proposed Pay System

EDM number 1360 in 2008-09, proposed by John McDonnell on 27/04/2009.
Categorised under the topic of Cultural heritage.

That this House values the expertise and hard work of English Heritage staff based on sites across the country who preserve heritage sites for future generations; is concerned that over 800 staff who work in visitor operations are facing proposals for a new pay system that will have a drastic impact by introducing a complex pay system which rewards staff on higher salaries and penalises those on lower salaries and in visitor operations by introducing market rates, performance-related bonuses and regionalised levels of remuneration, setting levels for lower bands that are considerably below the current statutory salary; notes that visitor operations are the main source of revenue through on-site shops, membership sales, guide books, events and entry charges, and that visitor operations staff take tours, assist with site conservation and maintenance and educate school children; is concerned that many staff claim benefits to support working for English Heritage and under these proposals may find it financially impossible to do the job they are so proud of; and therefore urgently calls on the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport to demand that English Heritage management scrap these proposals and ask HM Treasury for the maximum paybill increase of 3.7 per cent. to address the low pay issues in English Heritage.

This motion has been signed by a total of 72 MPs, 2 of these signatures have been withdrawn.