COST OF LIVING CRISIS FOR CLEANERS

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: january 2023 :: RMTnews 16 In October as RPI inflation topped 12.6 per cent, RMT conducted a survey of cleaning grade members asking them about the impact of the cost-of-living crisis. More than 1,000 cleaners responded over just five days. The report ‘Cleaners in the cost-of-living crisis’ contains the findings of the survey and explains why cleaners are rising up and why the union is balloting more cleaners than ever for industrial action on the railways. RMT’s 2021 report, Cleaning Up the Railway, revealed that most cleaners are outsourced and that their wages are held down to generate profits. As a recent report conducted on behalf of the Office of Rail and Road expressed it, typically cleaners’ “pay is low (and heavily influenced by the statutory minimum), premiums for unsocial hours working have been reduced or removed, and the wider reward package is minimal often only providing statutory minimum entitlements”. RMT’s data on collective agreements, pay rates and survey evidence confirms this for the rail industry. RMT’s survey data shows that outside London 44 per cent of cleaners earn below £10 an hour (Figure 4) but that this figure rises to almost 70 per cent when insourced cleaners employed by Transport for Wales, Northern Trains and Scotrail were excluded (Figure 5). Outsourced cleaners employed outside overwhelmingly earn between £9 and £9.99 an hour. Inside London, around 80 per cent of cleaners are employed around the London Living Wage, between £11 and £11.99 an hour (Figure 6). In addition, outsourced cleaners do not have occupational sick pay or decent pensions. Collapsing wages The escalating cost-of-living crisis has had a catastrophic effect on the already-low pay of these workers. As inflation has risen more rapidly, so these wages have declined sharply in value. Figure 1 below shows the decline in the earning power of both the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and the Real Living Wage (RLW). Even allowing for the uplift to the NMW in April, this is worth significantly less than a year ago. The value of the RLW has also fallen in the last year and even the recent uplift will not have reached cleaners yet as implementation by accredited employers is not mandatory and they have until May 2024 – eight months away - to put it in place. • A full-time worker on the National Minimum Wage is around £880 a year worse off now than they were 12 months ago. • A worker on the Real Living Wage would be £500 a year better off than they were 12 months ago, assuming that their employer instantly implemented the new rates. Given that the vast majority won’t have done, a cleaner on the RLW will still be £900 a year worse off. • A worker on the London Living Wage will be almost £1,700 worse off than they were 12 months ago. This fall in wages has certainly been felt by cleaners. 96 per cent of cleaners surveyed told the union that they felt worse off in financial terms than they did last year. In June 2019, RMT surveyed cleaners asking them about whether their wages enabled them to make ends meet. 63 per cent said they sometimes or regularly struggle to get by on what they earn. When the union put the same question to cleaners again in October 2022, the results were starkly different. 84 per cent of people responding said they sometimes or regularly struggled to make ends meet, with 55 per cent saying they regularly struggle. THE WORSENING STRUGGLE TO MAKE ENDS MEET The survey also contained shocking details of the kinds of measures these low paid cleaners were driven to in order to try to make ends meet. With the escalating energy costs, 62% of cleaners reported having reduced their use of heating and hot water. Half of cleaners reported having had to ask friends or family for financial help. More COST OF LIVING CRISIS FOR CLEANERS Union exposes cost-of-living crisis for low paid cleaners in new report