RMT press release, issued today

Leaving Tubelines and ITS cleaners on poverty pay ‘not tenable’, says union

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.

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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.