Cleaners on Avanti West Coast services are to take strike action on Friday, September 23 the RMT Union confirmed.

RMT members will walk out for 24 hours as part of a long running dispute about wages and sick pay.

Avanti West Coast subcontract their cleaning services to Atalian Servest, who, according to the RMT, pay their staff £9.90 an hour and offer no company sick pay.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: "Cleaners have rightly been hailed as heroes and key workers during the Covid pandemic.”

“Yet our members are languishing on poverty wages while the company they work for rakes in the revenues for shareholders.”

"RMT is calling time on all cleaning contractors who exploit their staff, and we are stepping up to the plate to take firm action in defence of these key railway workers."

Train drivers and rail staff are also scheduled to go out on strike on Saturday, October 1 as part of their separate ongoing dispute over pay and working conditions as the ‘summer of discontent’ continues.

 

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