Unions want commitments on jobs, pay & outsourcing, as train companies transfer to public ownership

Greater Thameslink Railway (GTR) which includes Southern, Thameslink, Great Northern and Gatwick Express was transferred into public ownership on Sunday the 31st May.

Trade unions in the sector have welcomed the government’s announcement, whilst warning that the prevalence of outsourcing risks undermining the public ownership agenda – and calling for commitments on pay.

GTR joins West Midlands Trains, Greater Anglia, c2c, South Western, Northern, TransPennine Express, Southeastern and LNER which are currently managed by DfT Operator Limited (DFTO).

TSSA has called on the government to make clear commitments on jobs, pay and conditions as services under the Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) umbrella begin running under public hands. Commenting, TSSA General Secretary, Maryam Eslamdoust said:

We are pleased to see the GTR services back in public hands after the long harmful years of privatisation.

However, as the programme of moving towards Great British Railways (GBR) continues it’s vital the government makes firm commitments to protect the jobs, pay, rights and conditions of all railway workers. That means right across the board – in Network Rail as well as the train companies.

Our union is clear – there must be a just transition to GBR because rail workers are the people with the skills and experience to make the new era of public ownership a success.

Let us not forget that our rail network is a precious asset – the driver of the British economy and the backbone of the nation. That is why proper investment is so important and why we have raised concerns about worrying cuts to rail spending on infrastructure across this parliament.

We also remain convinced that the best way forward is for all parts of our railways to be in the public hands – ending the vast profits made by freight and rolling stock companies. We will continue to make that case to Ministers.

Meanwhile, the TUC has warned that outsourcing on Britain’s railways risks undermining the government’s public ownership agenda. 

New TUC analysis reveals that Churchill – the company contracted to provide cleaners on Govia Thameslink – is estimated to make £2.52 million a year in gross profits from this tender – the equivalent of 83 additional cleaners or 160,000 extra hours of cleaning. 

The TUC says this has a direct impact on the workers themselves, and the quality of services delivered for passengers as money is siphoned off to shareholders instead of being reinvested in the workers and the service they provide. 

The union body says the government’s commitment to the creation of an integrated, publicly owned Great British Railways (GBR) has the potential to be one of the “great success stories” of the Labour government as profits from the railways are reclaimed from shareholders and put back into the public purse. 

But the TUC and rail unions warn tens of thousands of workers are outsourced or sub-contracted on our railways, including cleaners, security guards, caterers, security guards, revenue protection, infrastructure maintenance, renewal and engineering workers.   

According to figures from the RMT outsourcing and sub-contracting companies extract an estimated £400 million from our railways every year in profits. 

But outsourced workers working for third party companies do not benefit from the same terms and conditions as directly employed staff. 

The TUC says this is creating a “two-tier” workforce, where outsourced workers struggle to make ends meet on precarious contracts, low pay and without a decent pension.  

The union body says ministers must make good on the promise to deliver the biggest wave of insourcing in a generation, setting out a clear timetable to ending outsourcing on the railways and bringing contracts back in house. 

TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak said:  

The disastrous privatisation experiment left regular train travel unreliable and shabby for far too many.  

This government is rightly turning the page on the failed era of privatisation by delivering publicly-owned railways which put passengers above profit.  

This could be one of the great success stories of the Labour government. But it is undermining its own efforts to deliver nationalised rail by leaving contracts in the hands of third-party providers who line their own pockets at the expense of the workforce and passengers. 

We need a fully integrated national rail service which works for passengers and the rail workforce.  

That means tackling outsourcing in the sector and ensuring all rail workers enjoy decent terms and conditions.