New requirements for those who supply contingent labour to Network Rail include having to pay at least the London living wage within Greater London. This is currently £9.15 an hour, compared to £6.50 for the statutory national minimum wage.
Network Rail said that it will be awarding a series of contracts with labour suppliers to provide workers across the network with a total minimum spend of £450m over five years.
The total number of suppliers is being cut from 57 to 20. Four core suppliers will provide 70% of the workforce supported by a number of smaller specialist suppliers. These contracts represent the provision of around 500 people per day.
The suppliers will be contractually required to:
- pay as a minimum, the London living wage within Greater London
- invest in training and development of their workforce
- minimise travel time
- adopt Network Rail’s lifesaving rules, and ‘speak-out’ systems
- provide all equipment and protective clothing free-of-charge to workers
- provide a competent and more professional contingent labour workforce.
ÌýÌýÌý The four core suppliers are:

- Ganymede Solutions Ìý
- McGinley Support Services (Infrastructure) Ìý
- Morson Human Resources Ìý
- Shorterm Ìý
The other suppliers awarded specialist and support contracts are:
- Amey Rail Ìý
- Bridgeway Consulting Ìý
- Carillion Rail
- Colas Rail Ìý
- Coyle Personnel Plc
- Exxell Ìý
- GM Rail Services Ìý
- GPX Engineering Ìý
- Infra Safety Services Labour Ìý
- Keltbray Rail
- Linbrooke Services Ìý
- MECX Group Ìý
- Renown Railway Services
- Resourcing Solutions Ìý
- SW Global Resourcing Ìý
- TES2000 Ìý
The five year contracts will start on 1st April 2015.
Nick Elliott, Network Rail’s managing director national supply chain, said: “These new contracts are all about transforming our contingent labour workforce into a more professional, fairly remunerated and appropriately trained body of people that we are able to call upon when the need arises.
"The new code of conduct for labour will drive better employer behaviours, improve the quality of the supply chain and help ensure that workers are treated fairly.
“We believe that investing in this important resource will deliver significant safety and performance benefits for the railway as a whole.â€
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