Update: Tuesday 28 March 2023 from the RSA Board of Trustees

On 7 March the ‘RSA Union’ (who IWGB say act on their behalf) delivered a letter to the RSA’s Trustees which they published on Twitter.

This letter made a range of unfounded allegations, including about the RSA's senior management, and gave a wholly unbalanced picture of the approach to negotiations with the IWGB.

The Board and the RSA’s leadership team care passionately about the welfare of all RSA staff, a subject that is discussed frequently and with great interest. We are pleased that there are multiple forums at the RSA for all colleagues to express their views and it is important to us all that the staff voice is always both heard and duly considered.

Consistent with these principles, the RSA respects and accepts the statutory recognition of the IWGB and we are entirely satisfied that the leadership team has conducted all negotiations with the IWGB in a professional and courteous manner, acting in good faith and in a spirit of collaboration to reach agreement with the IWGB around a method of statutory collective bargaining for pay, hours and holidays.

These are obviously sensitive discussions and we are disappointed that the ‘RSA Union’/IWGB has chosen to mount an on-going public media campaign with a series of inaccurate and misleading claims, which is damaging to senior management's reputation and staff morale. This is not conducive to good industrial relations and has continued despite repeated requests to desist.

To make progress on the pay claims, RSA senior management have requested that the Central Arbitration Committee support resolution and the IWGB have now accepted this.

We hope that the IWGB will hereafter work through direct and private conversations and (as necessary) mediation to agree the requisite collective pay bargaining arrangements.

The RSA’s Trustees, having looked into the matters raised in detail, have privately responded to the letter from the ‘RSA Union’. They have refuted all allegations made about named individuals in the RSA’s leadership team whose conduct in our opinion has been exemplary throughout this process.

This is an exciting year for the RSA as we sharpen our focus on real world impact with the launch of our refreshed ‘Design for Life’ strategy and begin to develop a range of social change innovations.

The Board much looks forward to supporting the delivery of this strategy, which will rely on the huge contributions being made by our excellent senior leadership team and hard-working staff.