TfL cleaners win sick pay in victory for all Londoners
TfL cleaners have won four weeks’ full sick pay after consistent campaigning from the RMT.
As RMT London Calling explain “This would not have been achieved without union pressure. RMT has protested outside City Hall, and lobbied the Mayor and the TfL Board. For the past several years, three key demands for RMT have been travel passes for cleaners, company sick pay, and improved pensions. We have now secured two out of these three.
Until now, the lack of a sick pay scheme has meant cleaners literally could not afford to be ill, facing a choice between using annual leave, struggling by on Statutory Sick Pay, or coming to work whilst unwell, worsening their own condition and putting workmates and passengers at risk if their illness was contagious.
During the pandemic, TfL recognised how dangerous this situation was, and subsidised a sick pay scheme. But rather than making this a contractual entitlement, it was subsequently withdrawn. Now, after renewed RMT campaigning around the transfer of the contract from ABM to Mitie, the employers have finally budged. The sick pay scheme will be funded by TfL itself, further eroding the logic of outsourcing. TfL will now be providing staff travel passes for outsourced workers, and paying cleaners’ sick pay. Why not simply employ them directly?”
At London Hazards Centre, we are also asking ourselves: if workers can win full sick pay on London Underground by making the obvious safety argument, then why can’t we win the same in all workplaces? Why, six years on from the start of the pandemic, do we still have NHS workers and social care staff who cannot afford to take time off when sick with contagious disease?
The government subsidised outsourced companies in the NHS and private social care providers to grant full Covid isolation pay during the first years of the pandemic. But like TfL, instead of making full sick pay a contractual arrangement for those working with the most clinically vulnerable, the NHS and social care providers quietly withdrew the provision in 2022.
We encourage health and social care unions to follow the RMT’s lead and win full sick pay for all!
