RMT TELLS COVID INQUIRY EXPERIENCES OF TRANSPORT WORKERS

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: may/june 2026 :: RMTnews 24  RMT assistant general secretary John Leach was called on the final day of the Public Inquiry into the Covid- 19 pandemic. Baroness Hallet’s Inquiry was commissioned in March 2022 to ‘examine, consider and report on preparations and the response to the pandemic in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Part of the Inquiry’s agreed terms of reference was also to examine the impact of the pandemic on society and on key workers. RMT’s priority was to outline key messages which had come out of discussions with reps and members throughout the crisis. One key issue was the way that fragmented and privatised transport services hampered a coherent response by government and industry, while austerity cuts left transport systems with little resilience. The Covid pandemic also had deep economic effects including falling living standards, generating a rise in assaults on transport workers, alongside other public-facing service workers. “Our survey evidence has left the union in no doubt that members were feeling a huge spike in workplace violence and that the pandemic and the government’s response were making this far worse,” Mr Leach told the inquiry. The union also stressed the impact of outsourcing and sub- contracting in determining workers’ experience of the pandemic. Throughout the four years of the inquiry, the union hammered home the message that tens of thousands of outsourced and sub-contracted workers had been hailed as heroes while having to work through the pandemic with no sick pay, poverty wages and no pensions. T “This scandal was magnified when outsourced workers were promptly forgotten when the economy opened up again and expected to carry on as if nothing had happened,” he told the inquiry. RMT submitted a formal evidence paper based on survey evidence and testimony from our members, as well as providing evidence for the TUC’s own Witness Statement. The TUC also projected the voice of workers into the inquiry and to work to secure recommendations that would ensure lasting benefit for working people. It made the case for investment in public services and for enhanced health and safety in the workplace. Evidence disclosed as a result of union questioning also exposed the Tory government’s anti-union agenda and its fear of making any concessions during the pandemic in case they couldn’t be taken back afterwards. The TUC was also able to submit questions directly to government ministers, the Prime Minister and senior science advisers. Summing up the lessons to be learned for the future, Mr Leach stressed that the industry had not reflected sufficiently on what needed to be put in place before any future crisis and he urged action on the two-tier workforce, saying that it was ‘unjust and unsafe’. The evidence session is available on the Inquiry’s Youtube channel. The TUC thanked RMT for its work in supporting the task of pushing workers’ voices into the inquiry and ensuring that the experiences of union members would never be forgotten. RMT TELLS COVID INQUIRY EXPERIENCES OF TRANSPORT WORKERS Union outlines how privatisation, outsourcing and austerity impacted on dealing with the pandemic INQUIRY: RMT assistant general secretary John Leach makes a point at the Covid hearings