The Royal Society of Arts

London, 29 September 2023

The following letter is open for signature by Fellows of the RSA. If you are not a Fellow and wish to show your solidarity with the RSA Union, please follow and support the Union on X at @RsaUnion.

Open Letter to the RSA from RSA Fellows Regarding the Industrial Dispute Between the RSA Union and the RSA

As Fellows of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), we write in support of RSA staff who are in an industrial dispute with the RSA.

On 5 September 2023, staff at the RSA who are members of the RSA Union and represented by the Independent Workers of Great Britain voted to strike for the first time since the RSA was founded in 1754.

The first phase of strikes took place on 19 and 21 September 2023. Two further strike days have been called for 10 and 18 October 2023.

Striking staff members are asking for a flat rate of pay increase of £2,800 for all staff in the bargaining unit, restoration of the employer pension contribution to 8% given that the RSA cut this pension contribution to 5% during the Covid pandemic (which was raised to 5.5% in April 2021), and a £400 one-off payment for those staff who cannot work at home.

This is a reasonable request in view of the documented challenges those staff face with the rising cost of living, the RSA’s sizeable unrestricted reserves, and relatively high pay to senior management of the RSA.

We are aware that some staff have publicly reported broader concerns about an approach by some in management at the RSA towards union recognition and this entirely lawful current dispute.

We are also concerned to learn that several RSA Fellows have reported that their posts to ‘Circle’—the online discussion platform for RSA Fellows—asking about the industrial dispute have been deleted and that such deletion appears to have become RSA policy.*

* As of 16:05hrs, 3 October 2023, we became aware that one Fellow’s post to Circle expressing concern about online accounts by former members of staff about their working conditions at the RSA (in a video shared by the RSA Union) and asking whether the RSA’s leadership would inform Fellows of its position received a reply from the RSA. To our knowledge, however, previously deleted posts have not been reinstated, and we remain concerned at that persisting censorship.

These approaches by management, the censorship of Fellows’ comments, and the ongoing failure to resolve the dispute risk damaging the reputation and work of the RSA, its staff, Fellows, and partners.

We urge management to:

engage respectfully and constructively with the union,
respect the voice of Fellows in seeking to address this matter, especially within the RSA
promptly resolve the dispute by offering the requested pay rise, restoring pension contributions, and making the £400 one-off payment for those staff who cannot work at home.

Sincerely,

Dermot Feenan FRSA

Victor Schonfeld FRSA

Professor Natascha Radclyffe-Thomas FRSA, GCU London

Professor Simon Parker FRSA, University of York

Al Chester FRSA

Colin Newlyn FRSA

Michael Lomotey FRSA

Alistair Pulling FRSA