RMT to Protest Outside TfL Board Over Outsourcing of Cleaners

Rail union RMT is set to protest outside Transport for London’s board meeting next month as it intensifies its campaign against outsourcing and calls on Mayor Sadiq Khan to bring TfL cleaners back under public control.

The demonstration will take place from 9.30am on Wednesday 4 February outside City Hall on Kamal Chunchie Way in east London. It follows TfL’s decision to award a new five-year cleaning contract to outsourcing firm Mitie, covering more than 2,000 workers.

RMT said the move directly contradicts assurances previously given by the Mayor that he supports the insourcing of cleaners. The union argues that the contract award shows TfL is now being run in the interests of private contractors rather than under democratic oversight.

The protest also comes as cleaners working on the Docklands Light Railway, who are employed by an external contractor, have been taking strike action. RMT said workers were told that sick pay would only be available to those who are terminally ill, which the union described as an example of the “immoral behaviour” associated with outsourcing.

RMT is demanding that the Mayor intervenes to cancel the Mitie contract, sets out an urgent timetable to bring all TfL cleaners in-house, and ensures that DLR cleaners are immediately guaranteed proper sick pay.

The union says the cleaning contract is part of a wider trend of increasing private sector influence within TfL. It pointed to the recent re-privatisation of London Overground operations through an eight-year contract awarded to FirstGroup as further evidence of what it describes as “corporate capture”.

RMT General Secretary Eddie Dempsey said:

“The Mayor was elected with a democratic mandate to run London’s transport system in the public interest. However, instead he is allowing TfL to be captured by private corporations operating beyond democratic control. Handing thousands of cleaners to Mitie for another five years, while claiming to support insourcing, exposes how hollow that commitment is at the moment. TfL executives who work hand-in-glove with outsourcing and transport company bosses are shaping policy to suit corporate interests, at the expense of Londoners. This protest is a part of RMT's campaign to see the mass insourcing of thousands of workers into the transport industry which is a Labour government commitment. Cleaners should be directly employed, paid properly and treated with dignity, and TfL must be wrestled back from the privateers who clearly now dominate decision-making."

In addition to the protest, RMT is calling on the London Assembly to open a formal inquiry into the extent of private sector influence over TfL, including its dealings with outsourcing firms and private transport operators.

Image: RMT