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hOver 170 million objects, including the Magna Carta, British Library is one of the largest and The most impressive book collection In this world.
But in October 2023 a major cyber attack This threw it into chaos, shutting down its digital systems and resulting in employee details being leaked on the dark web.
Two years later, who’s the staff? Strike due to salary dispute – Said the disruption is still causing chaos and significantly increasing their workload.
They say they have faced abuse as a result of the ongoing issues, while some have had to make major changes to their personal lives after their personal details were leaked.
One employee, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the hack caused employees to “essentially become computers”.
“Modern libraries are digitally centric – everything from ordering to accessing materials is done online – so when a cyberattack occurred, library systems were taken down,” he explains. Independent.
“We had to do everything manually. To order, we had to write things down on a piece of paper and send it to the next department, which took a lot of time.
“Employees have had to learn the location of virtually all items – they have become ordering systems, become computers.”
Although they now use digital forms to place orders, employees still have to enter information manually – which is time-consuming.
Meanwhile dozens of services at the library are still unavailable, including e-books, catalogs of its archives and manuscripts, and online journal articles. This means staff have faced abuse from frustrated members unable to access essential content.
“As you can imagine users have been very frustrated because things are not working properly, so front-line staff have been facing abuse and have even had things thrown at them,” the staff member said.
Additionally, they have faced having their personal details, including addresses and passport scans, leaked onto the dark web after the library refused to pay a £600,000 ransom fee.
“People have had to move homes. There are staff members who have experienced domestic abuse and are concerned that their address is available, and it took months to get an apology,” the staff member said.
Employees have also reported frequent fraudulent calls, emails and text messages.
He added: “Cyber attacks have been on everyone’s mind, it’s been two years and nothing has improved – no thanks have really been given for the hard work people have done during those two years.
“It has affected our work environment, people feel less appreciated and it is the front-facing employees who are basically running the organisation.
“Then on top of that, our pay increases have been below inflation. We have employees who work here during the day and then have to go to another job in the evening. People are really frustrated and upset.”
On the second anniversary of the attack, more than 300 library employees have gone on strike over their salaries.
The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), which organized industrial action, said that staff are “forced to take on second jobs and take out loans to pay their bills and cover housing costs”.
The union said that during this British Library has increased its pay rise from 2 per cent to 2.4 per cent, this is “still well below inflation”.
The members are demanding inflation-proof wage increases, restoration of last year’s shortfall wages, and payment of Alternative Work Pattern (AWP) wages for security staff on compressed hours.
PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said: “The almost unanimous vote for strike action is a small glimpse of the strength of feeling among our members at the British Library.
“They are angry at yet another outrageous wage proposal that does little to alleviate the health problems caused by low pay. Nor does it come close to eliminating the need for many people to work a second job and take out loans to pay their bills and cover housing costs.
“Employers’ well-paid executives need to recognize that it is our hard-working members who make the British Library an important cultural institution.”
A British Library spokesperson said: “We acknowledge the devastating criminal cyber attack on the British Library two years ago has had an impact on our staff and users, and we are continuing to restore systems and services. While we cannot comment on the experiences of individual staff members, we are committed to working with trade union colleagues to agree pay awards.”