Scourge of trade unionist blacklisting

The Morning Star has featured members of the Blacklist Support Group in an article highly critical of the government’s proposed legislation.

Keith Ewing, professor of public law at King’s College London, writes “this belated gesture – to implement a power first contained in the Employment Relations Act 1999 – does not go nearly far enough. Blacklisted workers might also want to know why their files were shown to the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills.”

He adds: “Any regulations introduced by the government must provide a retroactive compensation scheme for the people on the Consulting Association’s blacklist, funded by a special levy imposed on companies known to have used the lists.

“The law must clearly lay down that keeping and using blacklists is a criminal offence. Anyone appearing on a blacklist should be entitled to a minimum award of compensation without the need to establish loss but with compensation being increased where loss is established.”

The article concludes: “There should be no argument – being blacklisted is a violation of internationally protected human rights, running a blacklist should be an offence and being blacklisted should be enough to establish a right to compensation.”