3 October 2025
RMT Press Office:
RMT calls for halt on £700m Tube cleaning contract tender after legal advice reveals Mayor may have been misled.
Tube union, RMT has written to the Mayor of London and members of the TfL Board demanding the immediate suspension of the procurement process for the pan-TfL cleaning contract.
The call comes after the union obtained legal advice from Michael Ford KC, which raises serious concerns about the advice given to the Mayor by senior TfL executives.
In the letter, RMT General Secretary Eddie Dempsey wrote: “I am concerned that the Mayor may have been misled as to his options in relation to the future of the pan TfL cleaning contract.”
RMT had been in formal discussions with TfL over a possible insourcing of the cleaning contract, following the Mayor’s instruction in October 2024.
However, the process was delayed by TfL and only began in June 2025 which is four months late.
Only two meetings were held before RMT was told in August that the review would not continue.
“A further meeting was expected to be held but in August, we were informed by the Mayor that TfL had told him it was now too late to stop the re-tendering process and that no further contract extension could take place, which might have allowed more time for a genuinely objective options appraisal process,” said Mr Dempsey.
Following this, the union sought legal advice.
Mr Dempsey said: “Advice from King’s Counsel suggests that this guidance was not accurate and that the Mayor has been acting under a misunderstanding of the options available to him.
“Our advice is that the contract could be renewed a third time by the same methods as could have been used in the past.”
The union also challenges TfL’s claim that cancellation of the procurement was no longer possible.
Our legal advice indicates that this is not the case and that a contracting authority enjoys a very broad discretion when it comes to decisions to abandon a contract award procedure and provide the service in-house, provided a contract has not been signed.
Based on this, the union is calling for two immediate steps:
- No new contract is signed
- An extension is granted to the contract to allow for a genuine review of the options open to the Mayor of London.
Mr Dempsey said: “This is a major TfL service, employing upwards of 2,000 staff and if it is tendered out it will be a contract worth £700 million over five years.”
“These are workers who put their lives on the line during the pandemic and worked every day to make the Underground safe for key workers to travel on.
“Their current treatment under ABM is a continuing stain on the reputation of TfL and the Greater London Authority.
“The cleaners are denied a decent pension in retirement and left to depend on pension credit, denied sick pay and overworked to make up for de-staffing to subsidise ABM’s profits. ABM paid out a £30 million dividend last year to their US owners.”
The union has also highlighted the record of both bidders on the contract.
While ABM paid £30 million to shareholders, rival bidder Mitie plc recently paid out £54.5 million in dividends – its largest payout in over 12 years – while also spending £104 million on share buybacks to inflate shareholder returns.
The union’s longstanding concerns about TfL’s internal hostility to insourcing have been reinforced by this episode:
“I believe it is incumbent on TfL Board members to take back control of what is being done in their name," Mr Dempsey wrote.
"I ask you to support our call to halt the tendering process, approve a contract extension and ensure that a genuinely objective options appraisal takes place.”
The letter follows growing pressure on the Mayor to reverse the outsourcing of vital transport services.
Last month, the TUC called on the Mayor to urgently convene a summit to resolve industrial disputes in London, improve industrial relations, end outsourcing, and retain ticket offices on the Elizabeth Line.
END
Notes:
The letter quotes the KC directly:
“In short, whatever the Contract states about its expiry, the parties can always agree the relevant term in writing as envisaged by the Contract itself…. I do not see why the same mechanism which could have been used in the past could not be used again now to grant a further extension, either (i) by an agreed variation under Clause 15 or (ii) by a written agreement in writing between the parties under Clause 74.’”
Mitie paid its CEO a package of £16 million in 2024.[1] This would pay the salaries of 570 cleaners on the Underground.
ABM’s CEO, Scott Salmirs took home a total compensation package for the year ending in 2024 of $8.7 million. That’s £6.5 million. That is 230 times the salary of one of his Underground cleaners.
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