Angry London rail cleaners take their fight over pay to Churchill’s Fleet Street offices
Cleaners employed by Churchill who clean trains and stations across London and the Southeast will take their fight over pay to their company headquarters today.
The cleaners are employed by Churchill to clean trains and stations for the Thameslink, Southern, Great Northern and Southeastern franchises, which run trains across London and the Southeast of England.
The cleaners argue that they were given more work to make trains and stations cleaner during the pandemic but were given no extra staff and pay.
In fact, Churchill has said it plans to cut the number of cleaners on Southeastern trains.
Churchill currently pays cleaners the minimum wage and they get no company sick pay, though their directors did get a £3.8m dividend in 2020.
In a recent survey of Churchill’s cleaners, conducted by the RMT union, 61 per cent reported that they sometimes or regularly struggle to get by, 69 per cent reported that they have gone into work while sick because they couldn’t afford not to work while 61 per cent said they were not confident they had enough people to do their job properly.
The protest, which will take place at 9am outside Churchill’s headquarters in Fleet Street, London, focuses on increasing their pay, sick Pay and travel facilities.