Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker
I will speak to amendments 15 and 35, which stand in my name. Amendment 15 deals with the creation of an industry-wide travel scheme. One of the benefits of joining British Rail was that travel passes were extended to workers and their families. That was a real perk of the job, and I think it was protected under legislation on a cross-party basis for existing staff. However, that was only for existing staff, and as other companies took over, that benefit was lost. There was a range of different schemes.
All that amendment 15 would do is place a responsibility on GBR to bring together those schemes, so that there is one consistent scheme that will continue into the future for the benefit of the railways. We have written to the Secretary of State on this issue—in March, I think—and we are still seeking a meeting. I would welcome confirmation from the Minister that that will take place.
I think we can place it on the agenda. I hope the Government will have taken this amendment on board by the time we get to the other House, because it is such a simple mechanism to bring together.
My second point is about amendment 35, which seeks to promote the insourcing of workers into GBR. The Government have announced the greatest wave of insourcing in a generation, and the amendment could create benefits by ensuring that the Government implement that promise. As people know, cleaning, catering, security guards and revenue inspectors have all been contracted out, but the biggest example is workers working on the infrastructure. I will run through the figures, which are staggering. Network Rail now directly employs 14,000 workers to maintain its rails and signals, but it also engages tens of thousands of subcontracted workers. Its renewals programme, for example, has been contracted out to a number of construction companies, which engage people on zero-hours contracts. It is insecure work with low wages and without adequate working conditions, and as Members across the House have said, there is often bogus self-employment as well.
…..We just need one comprehensive scheme under which everyone is treated equally—it is a benefit, one that helps to attract staff, but also to retain staff because of the commitment it demonstrates.
Just to understand the scale of outsourcing that has gone on, we believe that at the moment in excess of 100,000 infrastructure workers are engaged through outsourcing and subcontracting. People will be familiar with the impacts of that, including precarious contracts for the workers, but a report has recently been published by the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers—an independent report produced by Nina Jorden and Joel Hoskins. I refer the House to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests, as I am the convener of the RMT parliamentary group. The report identifies the scale of costs that contracting out involves, and the critical
issue that the contractors have very short-term horizons, so they fail to invest in skills. Time and again we have seen those companies undertake cost-cutting exercises, and the churn of workers leads to the loss of valuable skills and experience.
There is significance evidence of low pay and the way that people are discriminated against consistently throughout the outsourcing mechanism. Given all the research that has been done, that is unchallengeable.
I want to concentrate on the issue of loss of skills. Under British Rail, when someone joined the railway, they could have the vision that if they were committed and stuck with the organisation, they could secure additional training and rise up the ladder. All the way up, they would be gaining additional skills, but under outsourcing there has been a lack of investment in skills. The precarious work means that we are failing to invest in the next generation and, as a result, we may not have the skills to operate an effective system.
When it comes to outsourcing, people might remember that we brought maintenance work back into Network Rail to reintegrate it because there was a lack of skills, the undermining of safety and blood on the tracks. I attended the funeral of a driver in the Southall crash; that tragedy was a direct reflection of the breaking down of individual contracts that were outsourced and the loss of skills that resulted.
A joint letter has been published today that was sent to the Secretary of State, signed by the RMT and the National Skills Academy for Rail. In the letter, they call for
“a GBR workforce strategy setting out the skills, employment models and supply chain structures needed to build”—
as we all want—
“a stable, high-capability workforce across operations, maintenance and renewals, including consideration of insourcing where appropriate”.
The amendment I have tabled would enable GBR to function and perform its duties in a way that promotes the transfer into GBR of outsourced and subcontracted railway staff.
I would welcome a commitment from the Minister to a meeting with him or the Secretary of State to talk about the plans for insourcing. The Government are doing some excellent work on insourcing across a whole range of Departments, but this proposal has the scale to ensure that we fulfil the promise we made about the greatest wave of insourcing. I end by commending the Mayor of London on what he is doing to insource staff. It is a fine example of what the Government could do on a mass scale across the railway sector.