TRAIN bosses are attempting to flood their operations with zero-hours agency staff, at the cost of their own employees, transport workers heard yesterday.

And there was a call for “immediate industrial action” against one privateer from delegates at the RMT annual conference in Newcastle.

Northern Rail, which operates services from the Midland to Scotland and coast to coast, is increasing its use of agency staff despite agreements that they be deployed only in special circumstances, such as at unstaffed stations at peak periods.

The conference heard that Northern Rail was spreading the practice across the north, in clear breach of the agreement.

Northern Rail conductor William Kimm, in an impassioned speech proposing the call for industrial action, said: “Unfortunately, we have brothers and sisters on zero hours — and this is not an attack on them. It is an attack on the Tories, on the bosses.

“We need the TUC and everybody on our side.

“We are in dispute with them and we will get a Yes vote.

“Every operating company is affected by this. It is a cancer from within.”

First Great Western train driver Edward Dempsey, from Paddington, added: “This as an endemic problem not just to railways, not just to transport, but the entire labour market.

“Companies like Inter-serve, who employs the cleaners, have seen their profits spiral. We have got to drive these agency contracts out of the industry completely.”

The conference unanimously backed the motion.