London’s DLR cleaners strike for sick pay

DLR strikers and their supporters rally

Cleaners on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) in London are keeping up their fight for sick pay. 

The RMT union members, who work for subcontractor Bidvest Noonan, struck on Wednesday as part of their long-running fight.

Strikers and their supporters protested at a Transport for London (TfL) board meeting in the morning. 

Ali, who’s worked on London transport for nearly 10 years, told Socialist Worker that Bidvest Noonan treats workers without dignity. “But we are human beings,” he said. “We are people who can get sick. 

“If I’m sick, who’s going to cover my bills? If I get sick, then I don’t have enough money.” 

Workers are demanding that Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London, honours his pledge to bring the cleaners back in-house. 

Striker Sofia told Socialist Worker that she was “very angry” about how Bidvest Noonan were treating cleaners. 

Thousands of people use the DLR every day—and the cleaners play a key role in keeping the service running. But bosses “don’t give a crap”, explained Sofia. “I myself have been off sick, on morphine in hospital.

“I had to use my annual leave because I don’t get sick pay. I’m a single mum and I can’t afford to be sick.” 

Sofia explained that the RMT asked for talks with bosses about sick pay last spring. “They came back with a terrible offer of only one week’s pay if you have a terminal illness,” she said. 

Outsourcing allows private firms to make astronomical profits at the expense of workers’ health and wellbeing. 

“The money is there,” said Sofia. But “the bigger picture starts from the government—it gives them a green light not to pay sick play.”

RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey told the rally, “TfL bureaucrats are in the pockets of the corporations.

“The pay rise TfL commissioner Andy Lord gave himself last year—just the pay rise—would pay for sick pay for an entire year.” 

Labour promised the biggest wave of insourcing in a generation. But Dempsey said, “We’re seeing the opposite of insourcing, they’re contracting out half of our infrastructure.  

“It’s hundreds of millions of pounds of your money, of our money, straight out of our industry into profits for these corporations” 

Escalating action can force the bosses to listen—and cough up. 

• Workers names have been changed