MORE than a tenth of underpaid cleaners across Britain’s rail network are having to use foodbanks to survive, a shocking survey published today reveals.

Transport union RMT said its poll of 1,000 outsourced workers also shows that 28 per cent have skipped meals and a third are relying on credit cards to cope amid soaring inflation.

Nearly two-thirds have been forced to cut their use of heating and hot water after Tory ministers froze energy costs at a record average annual high of £2,500.

The union said that its members working for the Churchill Group, Mitie and other wealthy contractors have “had enough” and about 1,700 are now being balloted for further strike action.

The vote, which opened today and runs until November 22, comes as staff demand £15 an hour, company sick pay, decent holidays and good pensions from employers, some of whom are “raking in profits of over £100 million,” according to the RMT.

General secretary Mick Lynch said: “Cleaners need a pay rise, company sick pay and holiday entitlement if they are going to get through the cost-of-living crisis.

“For too long, contracted cleaners have been treated as second-class workers on the transport network.

“There now needs to be a national push from RMT to ensure that no cleaner is left behind.

“They are part and parcel of our industrial trade union and we are calling time on greedy contractors everywhere.”

RMT members at Churchill have taken intermittent strikes in recent months, while the union’s Mitie members at Merseyrail won a revised pay offer following walkouts last year. 

Former Labour Party chairman Ian Lavery called on his fellow parliamentarians to back the workers as they are “yet another example of hard-working people simply unable to make ends meet and having to use foodbanks to survive.”

The Wansbeck MP told the Morning Star: “They have my full support and I’d urge MPs to support these workers in their dispute, remembering the crucial work they carry out on behalf of us all.

“A massive message of solidarity.”

Mitie has claimed it is a “proud champion of our 65,000 front-line heroes who are working to deliver vital services to keep the nation running.”

Churchill was also contacted for comment.