Strike for the living wage at the National Gallery

200 staff were involved in the two-hour walkout which began at 1.00pm today, and which closed a large number of rooms in the gallery.

The workers are demanding that their pay is raised to the level of the London living wage - currently £7.60 an hour. Both the Tory mayor of London Boris Johnson and new Prime Minister David Cameron have claimed to be supporters of the higher minimum wage, which is supposed to reflect the higher cost of living in London. The PCS union, which represents the strikers, have described the walkout of an "early test" of this commitment. Meanwhile the gallery has cited budget constraints and a climate of public sector fiscal austerity as the rationale for continuing low pay.

100 workers walked out in Febuary over the same issue.