CLEANING UP AT MITIE

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: october 2019 :: RMTnews 16 RMT has secured a massive victory in the fight against poverty pay on the railway after outsourcing company Mitie caved in and agreed to pay the Living Wage on its Network Rail contract in the teeth of a major national campaign by the union. RMT general secretary Mick Cash said that it was a massive victory in the fight to eliminate the evil of low pay on the railway and I want to congratulate the RMT members and organisers whose hard work and relentless campaigning has delivered it. “We will now be pressing the company for full recognition and to address our wider agenda on working conditions. This is just the start. “RMT is also sending out a warning to companies like Carlisle on Northern Rail who refuse to pay the Living Wage. We are coming for you next and when it comes to ending poverty pay in the Rail Industry there is nowhere to run and nowhere to hide when RMT is on the case,” he said. The campaign to ensure that Mitie paid cleaners working on Network Rail stations a Real Living Wage received a big boost when MPs in Westminster tabled an Early Day Motion calling on the company to meet their demands. This followed a similar motion in the Scottish Parliament, which has already attracted cross-party support. The campaign has also received the support of nearly 100,000 members of the public through a 38 Degrees petition. Members also leafletted passengers across the country in the high profile campaign which has really paid off. Network Rail has outsourced cleaning for several of its mainline stations to Mitie Facilities Management, part of the Mitie Group plc, which paid nearly £49 million to its parent company in the last five years. But it had previously refused to pay its cleaners the Real Living Wage. That meant that passengers using Network Rail’s stations at Manchester Piccadilly, Leeds City, Birmingham New Street, Liverpool Lime Street, Glasgow Central and Edinburgh Waverley are passing through stations that are cleaned, day and night, by people who are surviving on poverty pay. More than 50 per cent of respondents to an RMT survey of Mitie cleaners said they struggled to make ends meet. Adding insult to injury, Mitie’s Annual report revealed that CEO Phil Bentley received an eye- watering £2.2 million remuneration package last year, up 103 per cent from last year CLEANING UP AT MITIE RMT secures massive victory as Mitie agree to pay Living Wage on Network Rail