Derek Kotz
Industrial reporter

RAIL union RMT has demanded that Transport Secretary Grant Shapps step in to stop Hitachi Rail UK from using taxpayers’ money to make dozens of workers redundant.

The union announced today that it is in dispute with the Japan-based transnational, which intends to sack 64 staff working on the publicly owned London North Eastern Railway (LNER) at train maintenance depots in Edinburgh and London.

RMT revealed that the company, which made a profit of more than £278 million last year, is using a clause in its 2012 commercial rolling-stock contract with the Department for Transport (DfT) that allows it to foist the £6.4m bill onto taxpayers.

In a letter to Mr Shapps, RMT general secretary Mick Cash said that the company appeared intent on stripping out the original LNER pay and conditions and using replacement labour on inferior terms — effectively using taxpayers’ money to boost its own profits and cut workers’ living standards.

Mr Cash said: “It is a disgrace that this government is allowing a multinational privatised rail company to fire UK rail workers at the height of the Covid-19 crisis whilst UK taxpayers pick up the bill.

“Our rail workers have kept the country moving during this crisis, ensuring vital food, medical and now Covid-19 vaccine supplies are delivered across the UK and it is a shocking indictment that our government is siding with unscrupulous employers rather than our heroic key workers.

“I’m calling on the Transport Secretary to personally intervene in this scandal to ensure rail workers’ jobs are protected and that UK taxpayers do not have to pay the multimillion-pound bill.”

The DfT was asked to comment.