STAFF at the science and other museums are to stage a fresh strike in a long-running dispute over pay.

Members of the Prospect union at the Science Museum Group (SMG), which includes the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford, will walk out for 24 hours on October 23, following a strike in August.

The union said most staff had been given a below-inflation pay rise of 1.5%, the latest in a series of below-inflation increases which have left workers with a real-terms pay cut of 10% since 2011.

Prospect negotiator Sharon Brown said: "Our members in SMG love their jobs but they cannot carry on with year after year of uncertainty and real-terms pay cuts.

"It is clear from the accounts that SMG can afford to pay a reasonable wage. It's time for management to sort this out so our members can get on with the jobs they love.

"We are encouraged by the way negotiations with the Science Museum Group have progressed, but we are still well short of a long-term commitment to paying the real living wage.

"Paying the real living wage next year is welcome, but means that for several months, hundreds of workers will still be earning less than they need to survive.

"SMG has some of the highest profile museums in the country and it is ludicrous that they won't just start paying all their workers enough to live on, and commit to doing so in the future."

The dispute also involves staff at the Science Museum in London, the National Railway Museum in York and two others.