Industrial chaos, outsourcing, zero hours contracts and ticket office closures in Transport for London –
What’s going on?
• Next week, RMT is planning three sets of strike action on three different parts of Transport for London’s network, with a fourth set to ballot for industrial action shortly if there is no improved offer.
• These strikes will include the entire London Underground network, Docklands Light Railway (DLR), its outsourced cleaning function. In addition, outsourced cleaners employed by ABM on the Underground have declared a dispute and may be balloting for action shortly.
• Now, it has been revealed that TfL and the new company running the Elizabeth Line plan to close every ticket office by August 2027, a move described by General Secretary Eddie Dempsey as ‘pouringpetrolonthefire’.
• In this briefing we explain why there has been such a multi-faceted breakdown in industrial relations in TfL and we suggest how the Mayor of London can use his position to rein in TfL managers and broker resolutions.
Root causes – Growing pressure and danger at work and rampant outsourcing at TfL
There are two fundamental causes underpinning these disputes and issues. The first is that TfL and London Underground staff are under growing pressure at work. The second cause is TfL’s widespread use of outsourcing and sub-contracting to deliver parts of its services.
1. Understaffing, fatigue and growing violence against staff
Since the pandemic, passenger numbers have almost entirely recovered across most modes of transport. Passenger journeys on the Underground, for example, are running at 90-94% of prepandemic numbers. On weekends, they are regularly in excess of that, with higher levels of leisure travel.
TfL is under pressure to maximise revenue from fares, while at the same time, there is higher fare evasion and higher levels of aggression and violence towards staff. Around half of all incidents of violence and aggression towards TfL staff stem from fare evasion or payment disputes
This has fuelled an understandable desire among staff for action to address their concerns.
TfL, seeking to drive down its operating costs, is unwilling to explore meaningful action on this, preferring to rely on a smaller staffing complement to deliver more work, including tolerating unstaffed and under-staffed stations. There are also 2,000 fewer staff working at London Underground than there were before the pandemic.
The problems with this issue for staff are well understood. On 2nd September, the Greater London Assembly’s Transport Committee wrote to TfL calling on it to “reconsider its approach to staffing stations and its routine use of lone working without sufficient mitigation to improve both the reality and perception of staff safety in the context of fare evasion.”
2. Outsourcing, sub-contracting and zero hours contracts at TfL
For many other workers in the TfL ‘family’, working life is determined by the fact that the organisation makes massive use of outsourcing, sub-contracting and zero hours contracts. 2,000 Tube cleaners are outsourced to US facilities giant ABM, hundreds of security guards are outsourced to British facilities giant Mitie, cleaners on Docklands Light Railway are outsourced to Bidvest Noonan and hundreds of track maintenance workers are employed on Zero Hours Contracts and bogus self-employment by Morson. Outsourced workers are typically low paid, have no sick pay, legal minimum pension provision, while those on zero hours contracts live in constant fear of not getting enough shifts to make ends meet. The ongoing cost of living crisis is hurting these workers hard.
But TfL shows little interest in tackling this. Indeed, it appears to be far more comfortable acting as a contracting vehicle than operating services, procuring goods and services worth £14.7 billion in 2024-25. A large amount of TfL’s procurement spending in fact goes on managing other procurement activities. For example, it spent £160 million last year paying for mostly high-paid agency workers in its Corporate Services department and a further £100 million on Management Consultants and Legal Fees, largely associated with managing and tendering contracts.
These are the root causes of the disputes now rolling across the capital.
London Underground strikes
The London Underground strikes are a result of TfL managers’ refusal to propose any meaningful action that would address fatigue properly and put staff on the path to a reduced working week The union first raised this issue in its claim in March this year, yet TfL managers have done nothing to address the issue.
RMT members cover shifts that start at 4am, finish at 1am and which cover weekends and bank holidays every day of the year. Fatigue and extreme shifts have been ignored for years, while the job has become more demanding over time. Many other grades of workers on the Tube work through the night as well as rotational shift work, which has a high impact on their physical and mental health.
RMT recently surveyed our members in London regarding workplace violence. The union uses a broad definition of workplace violence to include: physical assaults, verbal abuse, threats of assault, sexual assault or harassment, racial harassment, disability related harassment, LGBT+ harassment, being spat at/targeted with bodily fluids and online behaviours such as cyber-flashing and online harassment or stalking. This research found that
• 62% of staff on London’s transport network reported that they had experienced violence on this definition, within the last 12 months.
• 50% of those reported that they had experienced violence between 2 and 5 times and 20% more than 10 times.
• Of staff reporting violence, almost everyone reported verbal abuse (92%)
• 60% had been threatened with physical assault
• 34% had experienced racial harassment
• 21% had suffered a minor physical assault and 5% a major physical assault.
• 75% of staff said they believed that the problem had got worse in the last year.
RMT has been trying to get a resolution around meaningful action on this heading for months. As late as 3rd September our reps stated that the dispute could be unlocked by discussions that would address fatigue properly and put staff on the path to a reduced working week. Instead, London Underground managers stated that there was nothing further to discuss unless RMT was willing to accept its final offer in full.
It is London Underground management, not the RMT, that has stopped talking. TfL have called for RMT to put the offer to members, but the fact is that this offer is substantially unchanged from what was on the table when RMT members were balloted in July. On 29thJuly, RMT members delivered a thumping majority for strike action on the highest turnout for years, smashing through anti-trade union law ballot thresholds. Members have seen the offer and rejected it.
Docklands Light Railway (DLR) pay strikes
Docklands Light Railway is a privatised service, contracted to Keolis Amey (KAD), who have held the contract since 2015. RMT went into dispute after rejecting an offer of 3.4% - matching RPI inflation at the pay anniversary – in return for which management sought ‘productivity gains’. In other words, KAD sought to make a ‘stand still’ pay offer that delivered no real rise, but even that was to be conditional. In addition, they have refused to consolidate a one-off payment from last year’s pay offer. On 18th July, members voted overwhelmingly to take action, breaking the thresholds set by the Anti-Trade Union laws.
Keolis Amey Docklands has a contract guaranteeing the company profits of around 3% from TfL.
Since 2015, the company has extracted £16.2 million in dividend payments to its Anglo-French owning company.
This is money that could have been spent on frontline services for passengers. RMT believes that this service should be brought in-house, as with the Train operating companies on the rail network, ensuring an end to profiteering at the expense of staff and passengers.
Bidvest Noonan Outsourced Cleaners on DLR take strike action
Cleaning on Docklands Light Railway is outsourced to a company called Bidvest Noonan. Cleaners on DLR do not get sick pay and do not have access to a decent pension scheme. Bidvest Noonan flatly refused to make an offer that addressed members’ claim in July this year.
In addition, Bidvest Noonan made an extraordinary ‘offer’ to enter into further discussions around the possibility of offering a week’s full sick pay - but on the condition that the member of staff was actually dying.
To add further insult to what might be thought a sick joke, management made clear that this week’s full pay for the dying staff member would be discretionary.
To reiterate, under this offer, only if you are definitely dying can you apply for a week’s full sick pay and even then management reserve the right to refuse. Understandably members were
furious and have voted to take strike action.
ABM outsourced cleaners dispute – heroes sold to the lowest bidder once again
TfL outsource their cleaning, mainly based on the Underground, to a company called ABM. Cleaners working on the Underground and TfL’s estate do not get sick pay. They get the legal minimum pension provision with an employer contribution of 3%. A recent survey of outsourced rail cleaners across Britain revealed that more than 80% sometimes or regularly struggle to make ends meet. Between 80 and 90% of respondents agree that they would consider coming into work while sick, worry about their bills every month and worry about having enough money in retirement. ABM have refused to make an offer or negotiate around our members’ pay claim, which includes a call for proper sick pay. Now our members are in dispute and likely to move to a ballot shortly.
The Mayor set up a review to ‘assess TfL’s ability to take the contract in-house’ in 2023 and again in 2024 However, as noted above, senior officials TfL are highly resistant to insourcing and claim that the costs will be too high in the current funding environment. RMT has challenged this but the most likely scenario is that the contract will be re-tendered in September. Support for insourcing this contract is widespread.
RMT survey evidence shows that 88% of ABM cleaners believe that passengers would see a better service if they were employed and managed directly by London Underground or TfL. A separate survey shows that 80% of London Underground station management and depot staff, who work with the cleaners, believe that passengers would benefit if TfL brought the cleaning in-house. Insourcing has the support of the Labour Group in the GLA, many Labour MPs and Peers and the London Labour Regional Executive.
If TfL get their way and the contract is re-tendered again it will go to one of two bidders: ABM and Miti Plc. ABM paid a £30 million dividend to their US parent company in 2024. TfL’s payments to ABM currently account for 41% of ABM’s turnover in the UK, so this dividend extraction has been substantially funded by TfL.
ABM’s US parent has a turnover of more than $8 billion and paid a dividend of $56 million to its owners last year1
ABM’s US parent and UK subsidiary between them appear 124 times in Good Jobs First’s Violations Tracker website between 2010 and 2025, mainly for employment or safety related offences, paying out £8.7 million in penalties 2
Mitie has a turnover of £4.5 billion and an estimated 13% share of the UK outsourcing market. Mitie is 76% owned by ‘institutional investors’, but in practice this tends to be large investment banks and their investment funds. 53% of Mitie’s stock is owned by 10 investment funds like Blackrock, Vanguard, and JP Morgan. 24% of its stock is owned by US investors.3
Mitie has paid out £290 million in dividends since 2014 and in recent years has been pushing up distributions to its investment bank owners. Last year it paid out £41.5 million in dividends. It also spent £148 million in the last two years on buying back its own shares to ramp up their value in the stock market.
1 https://investor.abm.com/static-files/7fee5c9e-83da-4511-a1bd-476c73d0fd11
2 https://violationtrackerglobal.goodjobsfirst.org/parent/abm-industries
3 https://uk.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/MITIE-GROUP-PLC-9590156/company-shareholders/
So well has Mitie done for its shareholders that as a special reward it paid its CEO a package of £14 million last year.4
Mitie has appeared 41 times in Good Jobs First’s Violations Tracker website between 2010 and 2025, mainly for employment or safety related offences. It has paid out £2,000,000 in penalties.
Use of Zero Hours Contracts in London Underground Track maintenance
TfL engage hundreds of track maintenance workers – termed Protection workers – via ‘Labour Supply’ company Morson. These workers are engaged on zero hours contracts. Given shifts by text message, they never know how many hours or where they will be working and are denied sick pay, holiday, decent pensions and travel facilities. RMT surveyed these workers in 2023:
• Two thirds of Track Protection staff say they would be worried about raising safety concerns for fear of losing work;
• 75% are struggling to make ends meet
• Most report constantly monitoring their phones and being uncomfortable turning down unsuitable shifts for fear of not getting future work.5
Most report that their way of working creates stress for them and their families, leading to poor physical and mental health.
On 15th April 2022, a track worker engaged by one of these companies was struck by a train while working in a three-person team. The team had one worker employed by Morson, one by Cleshar and one by London Underground. A three-person team with three separate employers. The subsequent investigation by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) exposed some critical facts about the way that this employment model affects both workers and their safety at work. The report warned that ‘some agency staff feel that they cannot question or challenge LUL staff because this could affect the likelihood of further work with a particular group of people at a particular depot’. The RAIB also noted that some agency staff may feel that they need to exaggerate their familiarity with track or be reluctant to raise questions in briefings for fear of not being offered work in the future.
RMT has been campaigning for years to get these workers brought in-house, believing that it would be fairer for the workers, better for their safety and more economical and efficient for London Underground and TfL. The union has repeatedly raised the call for a working group with the Mayor’s office to end the use of zero hours contracts. In November 2024, the Deputy Mayor wrote back to the union saying that ‘ TfL has concluded that it should continue to outsource its requirements’.
While there isn’t currently a dispute among these workers, anger is rising among members at their treatment by Morson and TfL.
Unredacted documents reveal secret plan to close Elizabeth Line ticket offices
On 4th September, RMT obtained an unredacted copy of the contract between TfL and new private
4 https://www.mitie.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Mitie-Annual-Report-2024.pdf
5 https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/public-document-library/why-the-mayor-must-insource-safety-critical-trackworkers-now/rmt-policy-briefing-why-the-mayor-must-insource-safety-critical-track-workers-now-260523.pdf
operator GTS which revealed plans to close all of the Elizabeth Line’s ticket offices by August 2027. This has understandably caused consternation, given the recent history of mass opposition to ticket office closure proposals tabled by the previous Conservative government. Proposals to close London Overground’s ticket offices were also fiercely resisted in 2018-19. The union has written to the Mayor, asking whether similar clauses are being written into the contract for London Overground, where bids are being assessed now. RMT has also reiterated its call on him to bring both Concessions into public ownership.
RMT will meet any action to propose closure of any ticket office on either the Elizabeth Line or London Overground with industrial resistance and mass public campaigning.
As RMT General Secretary Eddie Dempsey said:
“Afterthebiggestwaveofpublicoppositionwe’veseeninyearstoticketofficeclosures, it’sbeyondbeliefthatsimilarplansarebeingputbackonthetablefortheElizabethLine. AgainstthebackdropofindustrialrelationschaosacrossTfL,thisrecklessmoveislike pouringpetrolonthefire.Theseofficesarevitalforthousandsofpassengers,especially disabledandvulnerablepeoplewhodependonface-to-faceservices.Ifthisdecisionisnot immediatelyrescindedwewilltriggeranimmediatedisputeontheElizabethLinewitha viewtotakingsustainedindustrialactionandlaunchingamasspubliccampaign.The public’sviewsweremadecrystalclearintherailwayticketofficeconsultation,yetTfLis pressingaheadwithamasscampaignofclosuresthatrepeatstheTories’madcap,failed plans.”6
Is TfL out of control?
The Mayor has rightly prided himself on a different approach to industrial relations in the capital. He has also publicly backed the Labour government’s New Deal, which pledges to end exploitative zero hours contracts and oversee the biggest wave of insourcing for a generation. Yet senior managers in TfL appear to be pursuing an agenda at odds with these ambitions. TfL’s senior managers appear set on a path of allowing frontline staff to carry the risks of the modern transport workplace while continuing to manage their portfolio of outsourcing, sub-contracting and zero hours contracts. There seems little recognition that the world has changed around this model. As Chair of TfL the Mayor is ultimately responsible and RMT believes that he needs to exert far greater control over Transport for London to improve industrial relations
What can the Mayor do?
RMT believes that the Mayor needs to take greater control of TfL and direct them to settle the current disputes and work to address their root causes. As Chair of the TfL Board and the senior elected official in the Greater London Authority, he can take action today by convening and chairing an industrial relations summit to unblock the current disputes and begin serious work to prevent future disputes arising.
What you can do:
Write to Sadiq Khan supporting the call for a summit to unlock the current disputes and begin work to restore industrial relations and tackle the root causes of the issues within TfL.
6 https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-slams-elizabeth-line-ticket-office-closure-plan/