4 September 2025
RMT Press Office:
RMT has declared a formal dispute with outsourcing giant ABM after the company failed to improve on its derisory offer to cleaners working on the London Underground cleaning contract.
Despite repeated calls for a fair pay settlement, ABM management have refused to go beyond the statutory London Living Wage uplift and have made no offer whatsoever on sick pay, leaving cleaners with no protection when they fall ill.
Unless the company comes back to the table with a serious offer, RMT will move to ballot its members across the Underground cleaning contract for strike action.
The potential strike comes against the backdrop of Mayor Sadiq Khan previously calling on TfL to assess its ability to bring cleaning services back in-house, improve sick pay and urging the government to fully implement Labour’s “New Deal for Working People,” which pledges the biggest wave of insourcing in a generation.
RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey said: “Our members are the people who keep London Underground clean and safe for millions of passengers every single day, but they are treated as second-class workers by ABM.
“They are denied sick pay, scraping by on poverty pensions, and left to struggle month after month while ABM extracts millions in profits and dividends.
“If ABM thinks it can ignore this union and the just demands of our members, they are in for a shock.
“Unless this company comes back with an offer that properly rewards cleaners for their work and provides basic dignity like sick pay, we will ballot for strike action across the contract.”
END
Notes:
Cleaners on the Underground and wider TfL estate do not get sick pay and only receive the legal minimum pension provision of 3%.
An RMT survey found that more than 80% of outsourced rail cleaners regularly struggle to make ends meet, with the vast majority saying they would consider working while sick because they cannot afford time off.
Despite receiving huge sums from TfL — making up 41% of its UK turnover — ABM paid a £30 million dividend to its US parent company last year, which itself posted revenues of more than $8 billion.
Rival bidder Mitie, also vying for TfL’s cleaning contract, paid £41.5 million in dividends last year and handed its CEO a £14 million package, while facing dozens of employment-related offences.
RMT survey evidence shows overwhelming support from both cleaners and Underground management staff for bringing cleaning in-house to improve passenger service
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