RMT backs rail nationalisation but warns outsourced staff are being excluded

The RMT union has welcomed the transfer of London Northwestern Railway and West Midlands Railway services into Great British Railways, while warning that the move must not exclude thousands of outsourced workers.

The union said the shift into public ownership, which took effect on Sunday, represents a positive step for the rail industry. However, it argued that the benefits of nationalisation will be undermined if staff employed through external contractors remain outside the new structure.

RMT has called on the Labour government to follow through on its commitment to what it has described as the biggest programme of insourcing in a generation. The union says that cleaners, catering staff and other frontline workers should be directly employed as part of a publicly owned and integrated railway.

According to the RMT, continued outsourcing has led to lower pay, poorer working conditions and significant sums of money leaving the rail industry in the form of private profit, rather than being reinvested into services and staff.

RMT General Secretary Eddie Dempsey said:

“Bringing these services back into public ownership is welcome but it is not right that outsourced staff will not enjoy the benefits of being brought into Great British Railways. The Labour government has committed to delivering the biggest wave of insourcing in a generation and that promise must now be honoured. Outsourced cleaning, catering, and other frontline jobs should be brought in-house, ending this super exploitation that has driven down pay, worsened conditions and led to huge amounts of money leaking out of the industry into shareholders pockets. A publicly owned integrated railway should directly employ the staff who keep it running, reinvesting money back into services instead of leaking it out in private profit to unscrupulous private contractors."

Image: West Midlands Railway