Staff members at Kensington Palace, the residence of Prince William and Kate Middleton, have threatened to go on strike over proposals that would cut their annual salaries
The palace staff fear that changes to the working hours of employees who work in publicly-accessible parts of the building, could result in an annual loss of up to £3,000 ($4,207), potentially placing their earnings below the living wage.
Metro.co.uk reports:
The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) will hold talks with palace officials today, but the Sunday Times said workers in the public areas of the palace were likely to vote on whether they should go on strike.
All of the employees involved are wardens who look after exhibits, work in the ticket offices or show visitors around.
Many of them have held their jobs for more than a decade, the Times reported.
A spokeswoman for Historic Royal Palaces told Metro.co.uk the palace was open as usual and they didn’t anticipate any disruption at this stage, adding discussions with the union were still ongoing.
In a statement, they said: ‘The changes to working hours affect a small number of colleagues in the front-of-house team at Kensington Palace.
‘We have given a year’s notice of the planned changes and are currently in discussions with the PCS union.
Niamh Harris