4 February 2026
RMT Press Office:
Outsourced cleaners on the Docklands Light Railway will strike alongside a protest at Transport for London’s Board meeting today, intensifying pressure on London Mayor Sadiq Khan to honour his pledge to bring cleaners back in-house.
The protest begins at 9.30am at City Hall, Kamal Chunchie Way, London E16 1ZE, which will see cleaners employed by contractor Bidvest Noonan continue their dispute over the denial of proper company sick pay and allegations of bullying behaviour from local management.
The cruel reality of contracting out services has been laid bare today, after the union revealed there have been members who despite being hospitalised due to ill health have received no sick pay or support from their employer.
One member affected said:
“Not having company sick pay has had a profound impact on my mental and physical health. Outsourcing is frankly inhumane because the contractor treats you as a disposable piece of junk when you are not working long shifts making them a quick quid.”
The union says cleaners have been told sick pay would only be considered in extremely limited circumstances, such as terminal illness, which RMT has branded an insult to a workforce that kept London moving through the pandemic and beyond.
At the same time, TfL has awarded a new five-year cleaning contract covering more than 2,000 workers to outsourcing giant Mitie, despite previous commitments from the Mayor supporting insourcing.
RMT General Secretary Eddie Dempsey said: “This dispute lays bare a callous contractor which is only able to treat our members this way because Mayor Sadiq Khan will not use his democratic powers to insource these key transport workers.
“Outsourcing allows private firms to make super profits at the expense of the hard graft of our members, deny them sick pay, continue bullying management practices and strip our people of basic dignity at work.
“The Mayor of London can end the corporate capture of TfL by bringing cleaners back in house using break clauses that exist in these contracts.
"This issue will not go away and our “End Outsourcing” campaign both in the capital and nationally will escalate until we can ensure politicians keep their promises and deliver for the people who elected them."
END
Notes:
The union is calling on the Mayor to terminate the Mitie contract, publish an urgent timetable for the early insourcing of all TfL cleaners and for the London Assembly to launch a formal inquiry into corporate influence over TfL’s contracting decisions.
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Tagged with: RMT, Eddie Dempsey, DLR, Strike, Bidvest Noonan, outsourcing,
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