Cleaners for Virgin trains to ballot over jobcuts

CONTRACT workers who clean Virgin West Coast trains are to be balloted for industrial action in a dispute over jobs.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union employed by Voith will vote in the coming weeks on whether to launch a campaign of action.

The union said 37 jobs were being cut, about 15 per cent of the total staff, hitting on-board cleaners and those who clean and prepare the trains at main railway stations.

The announcement comes a day after the RMT said it was balloting catering supply staff employed by contractor DHL on the West Coast route, which links Glasgow with London, in a separate dispute over pay.

Those workers prepare and deliver catering services but do not work on Virgin trains.

Mick Cash, RMT general secretary, said: “It is disgusting that the staff who keep Virgin West Coast trains clean are now themselves being treated like dirt. RMT will fight these job cuts, the imposition of draconian working conditions and the attempt to cast poverty pay in stone for years to come.”

An RMT spokesman added: “In the nightmare, complex world of contractors and sub-contractors on Britain’s privatised railways, the cleaning services have been contracted out by Virgin to Alstom as part of a facilities contract and Alstom have then, in turn, subbed out the cleaning to Voith Industrial Services.”

A spokesman for Voith Industrial Services said: “We are unable to comment on any proposed changes as we are still in consultation with the RMT and our staff, so therefore nothing has been decided.”