RAILWAY cleaners protested outside the Department for Transport (DfT) today, calling on the government to end the “scandal” of poverty pay.

Members of rail union RMT working for 10 outsourced contracts around the UK network will be taking strike action on December 22, 23 and 31.

They are calling on Transport Secretary Mark Harper to ensure that sub-contractors make pay offers to tackle “endemic low pay” in the industry.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “The treatment of cleaners on our railways is scandalous — yet another part of the generalised attack on working people — but it’s one the industry likes to sweep under the carpet.

“Our members are part of a forgotten group of workers who were rightly praised to the rafters during the Covid crisis, but now employers and the government expect them to suffer in silence.

“Many outsourced workers are reliant on food banks and credit cards to get by because they are paid so poorly.

“They will be making a lot of noise today outside the DfT, and we hope Mark Harper will listen.”

An RMT survey found that one in 10 railway cleaners reported using food banks, over a quarter have skipped meals, one in three are relying on credit cards to pay for the cost of living and four out of five are struggling to make ends meet.

The cleaners are employed by companies such as Churchill, Atalian Servest, Mitie and Bidvest Noonan to clean trains and stations on Govia Thameslink Railways, LNER, Northern, GWR, Avanti West Coast, Transpennine Express, Southeastern, Eurostar and HS1.