Staff at V&A site in London vote to strike over toilet and water breaks

Union calling for two paid breaks a day in what it says is punishing schedule for Storehouse ‘order an object’ workers

Staff at the V&A’s Storehouse site in east London have voted overwhelmingly to strike in a dispute over what they say are inadequate toilet and hydration breaks.

They will join staff across V&A sites in London who on Wednesday also voted to strike in a wider dispute over pay, working conditions, and the museum having declined to seek living wage accreditation.

The trade union Prospect said members at V&A Storehouse, which opened in May 2025, are denied enough time during the day for toilet breaks or hydration.

The dispute centres on collections access officers who facilitate the “order an object” service, a central part of the Storehouse’s offering of public access to its vast collection.

The union is calling for two paid breaks a day, saying staff need time to use the toilet and hydrate during what it describes as a punishing schedule. It said a collective grievance had failed to secure an “extremely reasonable request for customary paid breaks”, which workers elsewhere in the organisation receive.

Prospect said many of the staff had been recruited from the local community, something the V&A had highlighted publicly, but that they were treated worse than colleagues at other sites.

One Prospect member told the Guardian: “We get just one unpaid lunch hour, even though we’re on our feet for long hours, interacting with the public and doing a lot of manual labour.

“Breaks are a welfare issue. The Storehouse is purpose-built for storing objects, but they haven’t really thought about the human aspect – how far we have to travel around the building or where the bathrooms are.

“We’ve experienced a lot of dehydration, and sometimes people don’t even go to the bathroom for the whole day.”

They added: “We’ve tried every internal procedure possible. We’ve brought the issue up in one-to-one meetings, we did a petition, we went through a formal grievance, and we’ve never got proper answers.”

Another Prospect member said: “Every day we go into work, there’s someone who has a headache because they’re dehydrated. Management says we always have time to take breaks and drink water. But we need someone to relieve us because we can’t leave trolleys of collection objects unattended. We need breaks scheduled fixed into our calendars.

“We are the newest department at the V&A. We are the most diverse back-of-house department. It’s not lost on us that we were hired to represent the east London community, but our welfare is being neglected.”

At V&A Storehouse, 100% of those voting backed strike action on a turnout of nearly 88%, while 92% supported action short of a strike.

As part of the wider dispute, Prospect is seeking a minimum 4% pay rise for staff earning above the living wage, time-and-a-half for bank holiday working, accreditation as a London living wage employer within 12 months and improved food provision at V&A East sites.

Across the V&A, 83% voted for strike action on an 82% turnout, and 95% voted for action short of a strike. The timing of any industrial action has yet to be decided.

Mike Clancy, Prospect’s general secretary, said: “This incredible new way of showing off our heritage is being delivered by workers who are denied adequate break time to use the toilet or have a drink of water.

“Visitors will be appalled to learn that the kinds of working practices unions campaign against in companies like Amazon also exist in an internationally renowned heritage institution.”

He said the dispute reflected “a shocking lack of respect” for staff across the museum.

A V&A spokesperson said: “The V&A has been in negotiations with the trade union side since February and those negotiations are ongoing. Our offer sees a 3.6% increase in the overall pay bill, an above-inflation pay award as a minimum, and 6.9% increase for our lowest-paid colleagues. As always, we have maintained our longstanding commitment to paying at least the London living wage.

“The safety and wellbeing of our staff is of utmost importance to the V&A – all our staff have access to water and toilet facilities and regular breaks while at work. At V&A East Storehouse we have water fountains on every floor to ensure both staff and visitors in front-of-house areas have access to drinking water throughout the building. To ensure the safety and security of national collections, during visits to V&A East Storehouse, food and drink are not permitted for visitors or staff in the main collections hall or storage areas.

“Extensive measures were implemented to support our staff during the heatwave, ranging from additional rest breaks, increasing staff rotations across gallery spaces, closing several galleries at V&A South Kensington and closing Young V&A altogether on 11 days during the peak of the heatwave.”

Responding previously to a separate strike ballot by the Public and Commercial Services union, the V&A said all staff had access to water, toilet facilities and regular breaks, and pointed to additional measures introduced during this summer’s heatwave, including extra rest breaks, staff rotations and temporary gallery closures.

The London living wage is £14.80 an hour. While the V&A has said all its staff are paid at least this rate, some of the museum’s outsourced contractors are not in receipt of the living wage and V&A has not so far become an accredited living wage employer, although it says this will be reviewed this year. V&A Dundee is an accredited living wage employer.