In reaction to a letter written for the Guardian by Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union, National Gallery director Nicholas Penny has penned his own Guardian article ironing out some of the vagaries and misconceptions concerning the gallery’s intentions to outsource.

Penny began by pointing out some inaccuracies in Serwotka’s original article, explaining that the procurement process for outsourcing some visitor services was not brought forward, and that the timings for each stage of the tender were made public and not deviated from.

Penny went on to assure existing employees that “there will be no redundancies, and terms and conditions of employment will be protected”. He also explained that any employees transferred will continue to be paid the London living wage at minimum and will enjoy additional benefits working for new service provider Securitas.

Plans for the National Gallery to outsourcing jobs such as security, visitor services and ticketing were announced roughly a year ago, in order to improve the level of service offered by the gallery.

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Related: UNISON expresses concerns over Northamptonshire County Council’s extensive outsourcing