Staff at Tate galleries throughout the nation reside in in-work poverty and experiencing nervousness concerning the way forward for their positions, a Public and Industrial Providers union (PCS) supply has instructed The Artwork Newspaper.
The feedback comply with yesterday’s announcement that greater than 150 Tate staff will stroll out later this month in a dispute over pay and phrases and circumstances. Motion is about to happen from 26 November to 2 December, with PCS members demanding an above-inflation pay award and the return of workers advantages, together with a workers canteen and subsidised meals.
The supply stated: “In a [PCS] survey of members in July 2025… staff complained about low morale, growing workload and the lack of coaching alternatives on the Tate… members highlighted experiencing a variety of psychological and bodily well being points, anxieties about their future on the Tate and lack of disposable revenue.”
Staff at Tate Britain, Tate Trendy, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives have been supplied a wage improve of between 2% and three% by the gallery. Nevertheless, amid the price of residing disaster and what PCS has described as “endemic low pay” the provide has been rejected.
A Tate spokesperson stated: “Tate has made cautious financial savings this 12 months so as to spend money on workers pay and nonetheless obtain a balanced price range. This features a 3% wage improve for many roles—together with all workers on the bottom three pay bands—whereas administrators are taking a 0% improve to assist stability the general prices.
“Two of the three unions at Tate have accepted this provide. It is just by creating and sustaining a sustainable monetary mannequin that we are able to proceed to spend money on our workers in the long run.”
The union cites redundancies and elevated workloads following a current restructure—which noticed 40 roles lower to handle a funding deficit—as causes of decreased workers morale. The supply stated the restructure, which is the organisation’s second throughout the final 5 years, ought to “elevate severe alarm bells about how Tate’s senior management is working the organisation”.
Testimonies from PCS’s 2025 member survey members shared with The Artwork Newspaper give a way of the state of affairs confronted by some Tate workers. “Even with working additional time, it’s a battle to feed myself till the tip of the month if I pay all my payments,” one member stated. One other said: “It’s got me in additional debt and has made my psychological well being worse with all the concern about whether or not I can afford to get by this month.”
The motion is predicted to trigger some disruption at Tate galleries, together with at Tate Britain, the place the exhibition Turner and Constable: Rivals and Originals is because of open the day after strikes start. A Tate spokesperson stated the gallery can be working to make sure the exhibition stays to the general public daily as ordinary.
The PCS supply stated: “We empathise with art-lovers who could also be impacted by PCS’ strike motion… Our members have taken the troublesome resolution to strike as a result of they’re going through in-work poverty, eroded phrases and circumstances, and spiralling workloads following repeated restructures and below-inflation pay award.
“This strike motion isn’t about curbing folks’s entry to artwork, it’s about guaranteeing the individuals who make these cultural experiences potential can afford to stay.”
In accordance with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Growth, in-work poverty happens when a working particular person’s revenue, after housing prices, is lower than 60% of the nationwide common, they usually don’t earn sufficient to fulfill the price of residing. A current report from the Institute for Fiscal Research put the UK’s in-work poverty fee for 2023-24 at 18.0%.
