Charity workers could walk out on strike for the first time in the 270-year history of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) as a simmering row over pay, alleged union-busting and rising executive wages reaches boiling point. Union members at the enlightenment charity, which once counted Karl Marx and Nelson Mandela as members, are being balloted for strike action by the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) over a below-inflation pay offer, with the result expected this week. One member of staff, who is leaving London because his pay has not kept pace with rent rises, said management had refused to budge in five rounds of negotiations and imposed what amounted to a real-term pay cut this year. “The negotiations have been totally dismissive, anti-democratic and hypocritical. The RSA talks a lot about collaboration, openness, participation but they are failing to put this into practice,” he said. The RSA said it had implemented an across-the-board pay rise in April, equating to 4% for some staff, in recognition of cost of living pressures. It added it also now had a minimum salary “well in excess” of the London living wage. Some staff at the organisation’s art-adorned Georgian headquarters in central London have been angered by figures released this year showing a 170% increase in pay for executive staff. The charity’s latest annual report shows the leadership team’s total remuneration packages increased from £359,000 to £976,000 between 2022 and 2023. It also reveals that the organisation has £32m in reserves. “It’s truly awful. It’s disgusting,” said another member of staff, who has just moved into a larger house share partly to reduce his costs. “[We want] a fair pay increase to make sure no one is in hardship or feeling the pinch – and yet there are these people paying themselves silly amounts of money.”
Union members accuse the RSA’s chief executive, Andy Haldane, a former Bank of England chief economist and current government economic adviser, of running the organisation in a top-down way and losing experienced staff. “[Management] have created a hostile and uncomfortable environment for union members,” said a member of staff. “Turnover is high – they seem to be banking on people leaving.” Staff voted overwhelmingly for union recognition last year, with more than 250 RSA fellows signing an open letter in support of the union. This came after staff member Ruth Hannah had her employment terminated early after she accused the RSA of hypocrisy. One longstanding worker said many RSA employees were nervous about being involved in the union. She claimed she had been reprimanded for union involvement. “There is quite a toxic culture of a fear around unionisation that’s been created … to the point where I’m quite nervous about going on strike,” she said. The RSA said it was hugely grateful for the hard work of its staff, and said it had spent more than £2m of its reserves to preserve jobs and pay during the pandemic. “We’re extremely disappointed that the IWGB union has chosen this moment to distract staff from our important work by encouraging industrial action,” it said. “This is rather than engaging collaboratively as requested in talks with Acas or returning to collective bargaining conversations in September to which we have already committed once we have completed our re-forecasting for income and expenditure for this year.” It claimed that IWGB was using the RSA’s good name for publicity, stating: “We can only assume that IWGB’s decision to push for industrial action at this moment is motivated by disrupting our charitable work.” IWGB president, Alex Marshall, said the union represented the majority of staff. “RSA workers have voted to ballot to strike due to a complete breakdown in their relationship with management and a refusal by the RSA to properly increase pay and support workers,” he said. “Instead of engaging in good faith they are still choosing to make petty attacks on workers’ decision to unionise in an attempt to create divisions in the workplace. Our door remains open as always to constructive negotiations.” Update added on 15 September 2023. Following publication, The Guardian was contacted by the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) who wished to provide further information about the matters covered in this article. In relation to increased pay received by the RSA’s leadership team, the RSA wishes to clarify the figures contained in its 2022-23 Impact Report, saying the increase was essentially due to the inclusion of more individuals under the definition of “key management personnel”: the 2022 figure refers to three people while the 2023 figure covers ten people. The RSA also wishes to clarify that a substantial amount of its reserved funds are restricted in what they can be used for.