Union's fears on prisoner rail work

The seven inmates at Moorland Open Prison in South Yorkshire have worked night shifts on the West Coast mainline from London to Glasgow.

It is the same line where a Virgin train derailed in Cumbria earlier this year killing an elderly woman and injuring several more people.

Although Network Rail insists the prisoners are not involved in any "safety critical" work, transport union the RMT said the issue raised serious concerns.

General secretary Bob Crow said: "We are not opposed to the idea of offenders being rehabilitated through work but not at the expense of workers in the industry, not if it is about cheap labour and certainly not if it involved safety critical work.

"It appears that rail contractors are cynically using prisoners as cheap chain-gang labour and that raises a host of issues, not least what rights these people have at work and what opportunity they have to be represented by a union."

The inmates were trained in railway maintenance as part of a wider scheme running around the country to provide prisoners with new skills. Like other prisoners in open jails, the inmates are then able to use the skills in actual jobs while still serving their sentences.

The Mail on Sunday reported how the prisoners are paid the minimum wage to carry out the work, less than other civilian railway workers. Under prison rules they are allowed to retain £20 a week while the remainder of the money is put into savings until they are released, the newspaper said.

When working on the shifts they are driven 120 miles from Moorland to a site in Northamptonshire, where they work alongside civilians. Although they are employed through an agency, Network Rail is aware that the prisoners are working on the railway. But it said the inmates were not involved in specialised work.

A spokesman said: "Like many large employers, Network Rail uses agencies from time to time to plug gaps in its labour force. Anyone who works on the railway is properly accredited, trained and supervised at all times. Only appropriate people who are properly trained do the safety critical work. These guys have been deemed fit to work on the railways but doing the safety critical work is a specialised job."