WEST COAST TRAIN CLEANERS STRIKE AGAIN

4 RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: march 2022 :: RMTnews H eroic train cleaners working to keep Avanti West Coast trains clean and safe for passengers took further 48-hour strike action this month in pursuit of their campaign for fair pay. The cleaners, who have worked throughout the pandemic to keep essential transport services running, are employed by Atalian Servest Limited, a multi-national outsourcing company based in France. The outsourced cleaners are paid £9.68 per hour, less than the Real Living Wage and have no company sick pay, meaning that they frequently come into work when sick because they cannot make ends meet. Atalian Servest has refused to make an offer that would raise pay above the Real Living Wage rate of £9.90, with their latest offer amounting to an insulting additional 6p per hour for most staff (especially those outside London).         According to RMT research, last year Atalian Servest Ltd’s holding company paid a dividend to its French parent company of £10.8 million, a sum that would pay for more than 300 cleaners to get a pay rise to £11 an hour 12 times over and £15 an hour three times over. RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said that cleaner members on Avanti West Coast trains had been left with no choice but to take further strike action. “We have called these two further 48 hour strikes to remind the Atalian Servest outfit that this issue is not going away and that their latest paltry offer to the staff who generate their profits is an insult to our members. “The people who clean our railways are heroes who risk their lives and health every day to keep our essential services running but the way Atalian Servest is treating its workers on West Coast trains is an utter disgrace. This latest action is part of our national fight for pay justice for rail cleaners. “While the profits and dividends are siphoned off abroad, cleaners are expected to put up with poverty wages and live in fear of destitution if they get sick. It’s a scandal that we’re driven to strike action to win the most basic workplace justice. “Atalian Servest need to make these cleaner heroes on one of our main intercity rail routes a better offer and Avanti need to take responsibility as well because they are complicit in this gross exploitation,” he said. WEST COAST TRAIN CLEANERS STRIKE AGAIN