End Rail Outsourcing Petition
Heidi Alexander, Secretary of State for Transport
Whilst it is good news that the Government is creating an integrated, publicly owned rail network, I am concerned that many essential rail services across rail and metro networks - such as cleaning, station staffing, catering, security, rail infrastructure and engineering - will still be outsourced to private contractors.
That is bad news for passengers. RMT research shows outsourcing has cost the taxpayer and farepayer £400 million annually in profits leaking out of the rail industry, the equivalent of a 3.8 per cent fare cut, while insourcing and integrating these services with the rest of the network would provide better quality, safety and value for money.
Outsourcing is also bad news for rail workers as it is an employment model driven by employers engaging workers on precarious contracts and on inferior terms and conditions, such as poorer sick pay and pensions.
Outsourcing could also be embedding systematic racism on parts of the rail network where workers are disproportionally from a BME background.
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Heidi Alexander, Secretary of State for Transport
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[Your Name]
As you are aware your Government has committed to oversee the “biggest wave of insourcing for a generation” and, as such, I am asking you to support the RMT union’s Better Jobs, Better Services campaign to end rail outsourcing.
All the evidence shows that insourcing and integrating outsourced rail services with the rest of the railway would provide better jobs, services, safety and value for money.
It is the case that on many parts of the network cleaning, station, catering, infrastructure and engineering services are already provided in-house, or there are discussions to do so. I hope you agree that this means that the Government and Devolved Transport Authorities should extend the policy of building an integrated and publicly owned railway network to also become a vehicle to end rail outsourcing to deliver better jobs and better services.
Thank you