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Tyne and Wear Metro cleaners claim outsourcing is making their lives harder
30th of July 2025
Around 70 per cent of cleaners working for Tyne and Wear Metro in the north of England claim they regularly struggle to make ends meet.
A total of 67 per cent also say they cannot afford to take time off for illnesses, while 90 per cent claim their workload is rising. And many believe the problem is due to outsourcing, with 87 per cent believing the issue would be alleviated if cleaning were brought back in-house.
These were among the results of a survey carried out among Metro cleaners in July 2025. Cleaning at the Metro - a light rail system serving Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland and surrounding areas - is currently outsourced to Churchill.
The study also revealed that 85 per cent of Metro cleaners have worked while they were ill. And 87 per cent are concerned that they will have insufficient money on which to live after they have retired.
The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers is calling on the Mayor of the North East Combined Authority Kim McGuinness to end the outsourcing of Metro cleaning services and commit to insourcing when Churchill's contract ends in August 2026.
"These findings must be a wake-up call to employers and politicians," said RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey.
"We are in dispute with the company and are not ruling out calling for strike action if bosses do not start to treat cleaners properly. This is part of our national campaign to end outsourcing and we are calling on the North East Mayor to insource these workers as soon as practically possible."
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