For 7 years the IWM has outsourced the visitor & security services which has clearly failed. It does not work for the public, for the workers or for the museum collections.  Workers have endured mismanagement, as well as payroll and pension administration problems. It is not cost effective to privatise this service, as a privatised service has to be managed by the contractor, supervised/monitored by the IWM. Where are the savings coming from? Exploitation of the work force and a reduced service that is how they are making savings. It is time to end privatisation and bring back all outsourced services back in house.

We are asking you:

·       To immediately intervene to stop job cuts planned by private contractor Zeglobal

·       End the deskilling, knowledge drain and loss of morale at the Imperial War Museum by reinstating the Visitor Service & Security role.

·       Start the process of bringing back those services in house.

Why is this important?

In 2014, the Imperial War Museum privatised its visitor & security services, the company then appointed (Shields Guarding) who had no experience in running museums and the results where catastrophic impacting on workers, the services delivered to visitors and the care of collections. Workers have endured seven years of mismanagement, as well as pension administration problems. The museum has now decided to replace the visitor & security services role with volunteers and to make the visitor services assistant (VSA) purely a security guarding role. Zeglobal have won the new tender and rather worryingly they have no experience in managing museums and are again focusing on cutting jobs for profit rather than improving services. In the middle of a global pandemic where safety should be paramount, the Imperial War Museum are proposing to cut visitor & security services roles and compromise safety, which has the potential for a major incident to take place.

The PCS Culture Group supports the call for a review of privatisation in the sector and these contracts, the IWM, the Tate, British Library, National Gallery, to be brought back in-house.

How will it be delivered?

We will hand deliver (Pandemic permitting)  petition to the Imperial War Museum during 2021.