PMA and union staffers locked in another labor dispute. This time, it’s over remote work.
The labor dispute is one of the 22 active labor grievances filed against the institution.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art and its unionized staff are locked in yet another labor dispute — this time, over remote work.
The museum workers’ union says museum management is violating the terms of their contract by not allowing employees to work from home up to two days a week if they previously had permission to do so.
An unfair labor practice charge that alleges revoked remote work access was filed with the National Labor Relations Board against the museum earlier this month. A grievance about the issue was lodged in February and is expected to go to arbitration soon, according to Halcyone Schiller, president of AFSCME Local 397, the union of Philadelphia’s cultural workers.
Museum spokesperson Maggie Fairs denied that the managers are violating any contract provisions by calling employees back into the office because allowing employees to work from home was already subject to manager approval.
“Individual department heads can set guidelines for remote and in office working, as has always been the case,” Fairs said. “There is no museum-wide change to the remote work policy. “The Philadelphia Museum of Art continues to be in full compliance with the remote work provision in the Collective Bargaining Agreement.”
Schiller said the remote work issue is just one of several ongoing labor disputes at the museum.
“It’s important to realize that this is all happening in the context of us having 22 grievances right now,” Schiller said.
Some of those include basic workplace provisions, like the fair posting of job openings.
“It very much feels like they see the contract as a suggestion rather than a binding agreement,” said the union leader.
In mid-May, the museum and its union workers finally reached a settlement in a yearlong fight over longevity pay raises called for in their 2022 labor contract.
At the time, Fairs said museum leadership hoped that settlement was the start of improved relations between management and its workers.
In September 2022, on the same day current museum president and CEO Sasha Suda reported for her first day on the job, the union workers began a bitter, nearly three-week strike. When it ended, Suda vowed healing.