Outsourcing is a Racket!

Oct 01, 2025

When they came to power, the Labour government promised to unleash the “biggest wave of insourcing in a generation”. It’s time they delivered.

For decades, politicians and bosses have sold us the same lie: that outsourcing makes services more “efficient.” What they never say is efficient for whom. Because for workers and passengers, outsourcing means worse pay, poorer services, and unsafe conditions. The only ones cashing in are the private contractors and their shareholders.

Let’s call it what it is. Outsourcing isn’t reform. Outsourcing isn’t innovation. Outsourcing is a racket.

How the Racket Works

The outsourcing game is simple:

Contractors underbid to win public contracts.
They cut wages, gut conditions, and slash staffing to make a profit.
Shareholders pocket the dividends while services decline.
When it collapses, the public sector picks up the pieces - and the bill.

It’s corporate looting, dressed up in the language of efficiency. And transport workers have been paying the price for decades.

Exploiting Workers, Endangering Passengers

Outsourcing is built on exploitation. Transport cleaners, caterers, security staff and maintenance workers are shunted onto the lowest pay scales, denied sick pay and pensions, and forced into insecure contracts.

Meanwhile, companies cut corners on safety to keep costs down. Lone working, skeleton staffing, and lack of training have become the norm. For passengers, that means dirtier trains, broken facilities, and greater risks when things go wrong.

When a station cleaner earns poverty pay while executives rake in six-figure bonuses, something is badly broken.

A Crisis We All Pay For

Outsourcing doesn’t even save money. It creates chaos, waste, and duplication. Public bodies spend millions managing contracts, monitoring performance, and cleaning up after failed contractors.

Look at the railways: collapsed franchises, bailed out with taxpayer cash. Look at the PFI disasters in schools and hospitals. Time and again, outsourcing costs more in the long run, but by then the profiteers are long gone with their winnings.

Divide and Rule

One of the dirtiest tricks of outsourcing is how it divides the workforce. Two people doing the exact same job can be employed by different companies on wildly different pay and conditions. That’s not an accident; it’s designed to weaken collective bargaining and undermine union power.

RMT rejects this race to the bottom. A worker is a worker, and all workers deserve decent pay, equal rights, and union protection.

The Alternative: Bring It Back In-House

The solution is clear: stop the racket, end outsourcing, and bring services back in-house. When workers are directly employed, they get fairer pay, better conditions, and proper recognition. Services are more accountable, more reliable, and more cost-effective in the long run.

Communities don’t want contractors creaming off profit. They want clean stations, safe services, and workers treated with respect. That only happens when services are run for people, not profit.

RMT’s Call to Action

RMT has fought every step of the way against outsourcing in transport. We’ve exposed poverty pay contracts, organised outsourced workers, and forced companies to raise standards. But we know the fight isn’t over.

We demand: