Get the latest news from RMT as it happens - join our media mailing list
Publication Date: July 17 2008
ALL TUBE cleaners should be paid the London living wage, the Underground's biggest union said today after the mayor of London appeared to backtrack on his pledge yesterday that all cleaners on Metronet contracts would be paid at least £7.45 an hour by next month.
At yesterday's question time the mayor said that cleaners on Metronet contracts, which he now controls, would be paid the London living wage "by August at the latest", but a statement today said that it would apply only to those contracts up for renewal next month.
That would leave cleaners on Metronet's ITS contract, which is not due for renewal until next year, being paid nearly £2 an hour less than colleagues doing identical work, while the mayor's position also raised the prospect of cleaners on Tubelines contracts having to endure poverty pay for up to four more years.
"If poverty pay is unacceptable on some Metronet cleaning contracts it is unacceptable on all Tube cleaning contracts, including Tubelines," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.
"Yesterday the mayor said that Metronet staff would get the £7.45 minimum by August at the latest, but today his office is saying that it will apply only to the three contracts up for renewal next month.
"That would leave cleaners on Metronet's ITS contract being paid £2 less an hour than colleagues doing identical work until next year, and potentially leaves cleaners on Tubelines' contracts facing poverty wages for another four years.
"Frankly that is untenable and the only solution is for the mayor to go the final mile and ensure that all Tube cleaners get the London living wage and get it now.
"Our members cannot afford to wait for jam tomorrow, they want a living wage today," Bob Crow said.
ends
Note to editors:Some 700 RMT cleaners working for cleaning subcontractors ISS, ITS, ICS and GBM have taken strike action twice in their campaign for a living wage: a 48-hour strike between July 1 and 3, and an earlier 24-hour stoppage on June 25 and 26.
The cleaners' demands also include 28 days' holiday, sick pay, decent pensions and travel facilities, and an end to the barbaric practice of 'third-party sackings' in which cleaners can be dismissed, with no disciplinary hearing or right of appeal, at the behest parties other than the employer - a device used to get rid of union activists.
Early Day Motion 1872 Tabled by John McDonnell and signed by 50 MPs to July 15
CONDITIONS FOR CLEANERS EMPLOYED ON LONDON UNDERGROUND
http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=36190&SESSION=891
That this House fully supports the 700 cleaners on London Underground who are members of the RMT union, who have voted by a margin of 125-to-one to take strike action for the London living wage and improved working conditions, including decent sick pay, pensions, holiday entitlement and travel facilities; notes that the action also seeks to end the disgraceful practice of third-party sackings in which cleaners can be dismissed, with no disciplinary hearing or right of appeal, at the behest of parties other than the employer; is appalled that these vulnerable workers who do such an essential job for London must get by on rates of pay of little more than £5.50 an hour; believes that such exploitation brings shame on London as it prepares for the 2012 Olympics; further notes that the cleaners are employed by contractors ISS, ITS, ICS and GBM who are subcontracted to Metronet and Tube Lines to undertake cleaning for London Underground; therefore believes that Transport for London (TfL) has a clear responsibility to assist in resolving this dispute; calls on the Mayor of London to honour the pledge of the previous Mayor that cleaners on Metronet contracts would receive the London living wage as soon as they passed under TfL control, and to bring pressure on Tube Lines also to pay the living wage; condemns the intimidation of cleaners by employers in this dispute; and urges cleaning bosses instead to direct their energies to reaching a just, negotiated statement.
