UNIONS warned a “two-tier workforce” is being created today, as Britain’s largest train operator, Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), had its services taken into public ownership.

The TUC said that tens of thousands of railway workers remain outsourced or sub-contracted as Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander hailed GTR’s nationalisation “a defining moment in our reform of the railway.”

They are struggling to make ends meet on precarious contracts, low pay and without a decent pension while their third-party companies’ employers make an estimated £400 million in annual profits, said the union federation.

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: “This could be one of the great success stories of the Labour government.

“But it is undermining its own efforts to deliver nationalised rail by leaving contracts in the hands of third-party providers who line their own pockets at the expense of the workforce and passengers.

“We need a fully integrated national rail service which works for passengers and the rail workforce.

“That means tackling outsourcing in the sector and ensuring all rail workers enjoy decent terms and conditions.”

RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey added: “We want to see all our members on the railway receive the same benefits of public ownership and this includes outsourced workers.

“The Labour government needs to follow through on its commitment to undertake a mass wave of insourcing.”

GTR’s cleaning services contractor Churchill is estimated to make £2.52m in annual gross profits from this tender – the equivalent of 83 additional cleaners or 160,000 extra hours of cleaning, according to new TUC analysis.

This has a direct impact on the workers themselves and the quality of services delivered for passengers as money is siphoned off to shareholders instead of being reinvested in the workers and the service they provide, said the union federation.

GTR is the fifth operator to enter public ownership under the government, following c2c, Greater Anglia, South Western Railway and West Midlands Trains.

Its services – Southern, Thameslink, Great Northern and Gatwick Express – account for one in six train journeys in Britain.

LNER, Northern, Southeastern and TransPennine Express were already nationalised when Labour came to power.

Chiltern Railways’ services will be next to transfer on September 20, followed by Great Western Railways on December 13.

The full public ownership programme is expected to be completed in 2027.