national portfolio. Photograph: David Sillitoe/The Guardian
Musicians in the English National Opera have voted to halt all strike action after reaching an agreement with the organisation after a dispute that has rumbled on since mid-January.
After negotiations with the Musicians’ Union (MU), the ENO agreed to revise its plans, which triggered the dispute and involved making all of the chorus, orchestra and music staff redundant before re-employing them for six months of the year.
Now the musicians will be rehired as originally proposed, but they will have seven months of guaranteed work, a minimum redundancy payment and “improvements to the proposed contract”.
As a result all planned industrial action for February, which was the first time the MU announced a full strike in 44 years, has been cancelled.
On 29 January, the performing arts union Equity, which represents the ENO’s singers and chorus, announced an interim settlement with the organisation but has not yet reached a full resolution.
The agreement is a rare piece of positive news for the ENO, which has been under pressure since it was removed from Arts Council England’s national portfolio last year, losing its £12.8m annual grant, and told it must move outside London to qualify for future grants.
After the decision was condemned as “cultural vandalism”, Arts Council England announced extra money and more time for the ENO to transition to a new home, which will be in Greater Manchester.
Jo Laverty, the Musicians’ Union’s national organiser for orchestras, said: “Our members remain deeply disappointed that they have lost so much work and income when many of the other ENO staff have stayed full time.”
“It is our intention to work on building up our members’ work with ENO so they can return to full contracts. An ideal long-term situation would see ENO making opera full time in both London and Manchester.”
