WORKERS at the Lady Lever Art Gallery are to strike for eight weeks in a dispute over pay.

More than 200 members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) at National Museums Liverpool (NML) will walk out from February 17.

The union said NML was the only one of 200 government employers who had not paid an agreed £1,500 cost-of-living payment.

The action is likely to affect four museums – the Museum of Liverpool, the World Museum, the International Slavery Museum and the Maritime Museum – as well as the Walker Art Gallery, Sudley House and Wirral's Lady Lever Art Gallery, the PCS said.

General secretary, Fran Heathcote, said: “NML describes itself as ‘trustworthy, respectful and inclusive’, but there’s nothing trustworthy or respectful about being the only government employer not to pay its staff the cost-of-living crisis payment.

“Our members at NML work just as hard as our members elsewhere, so why are they not receiving the same rewards?

“NML can stop these strikes before they start by doing the decent thing to their staff and paying them what they deserve.”