Employment relations minister Lord Young  announced the new measures, which came into effect on 2 March. He said: “Blacklisting someone because they are a member of a trade union is underhand, unfair and blights people’s lives.

“The new regulations outlaw the compilation, dissemination and use of blacklists. They have been designed to build on existing protections in the area, which are found in trade union and data protection law, Good employers who operate fair and open vetting processes have nothing to fear from these regulations.” He added: “I am confident that this new piece of legislation will bring to an end the disreputable practice of blacklisting once and for all.”

The regulations:
* make it unlawful for organisations to refuse employment or sack individuals as a result of appearing on a blacklist;
* make it unlawful for employment agencies to refuse to provide a service on the basis of an individual appearing on a blacklist; and
* enable individuals or unions to pursue compensation or solicit action against those who compile, distribute or use blacklists. 

However, Alan Ritchie, general secretary of UCATT, said these measures were insufficient, and said the government had ignored its call for the regulations to be beefed up. “Fortunately for Lord Young blacklisting doesn’t occur in the House of Lords but ordinary construction workers are not so privileged,” he said.

UCATT argued that the regulations were deficient because they did not make blacklisting a specific criminal offence and only prevented workers from being blacklisted for undertaking, the narrowly defined, “trade union activities”.

The union adds that the regulations also fail to grant an automatic right to compensation for any worker who discovers that they have been blacklisted. If a blacklist is discovered workers will not be automatically told that they had been blacklisted.

Mr Ritchie said: “Cynical construction employers will recognise the weakness of the regulations and could continue to blacklist workers. They know that they are unlikely to get caught and if they do they will merely get a slap on the wrist. UCATT will continue to campaign to have the regulations overhauled so that they are truly effective in stamping out this despicable practice once and for all.”

In March 2009, the Information Commissioner reported that 40 construction companies had subscribed to a database used to vet construction workers, which has now been closed under data protection law.  On 16 July last year, Ian Kerr, a former Special Branch officer and the individual who operated the database, was fined £5,000 at Knutsford Crown Court for committing a criminal offence under data protection law.

The union says it wrote to and contacted directly members of the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments, expressing “grave concerns” about the proposed law. It says when the committee met on 20 January to consider the regulations, a decision was made to delay ratifying the regulations for a week, as the committee were concerned that the proposals do not comply with human rights obligations.

UCATT general secretary Alan Ritchie said: “The pause in the parliamentary process is welcome. Outlawing blacklisting is a fundamental issue for UCATT. The government now has the opportunity to rethink and redraft regulations which as they stand are entirely inadequate to stamp out blacklisting.”

The union wants the law amended to make blacklisting a criminal offence and for a wider definition of the “trade union activities” falling in the scope of the measures. It also wants workers to be told automatically if their details are discovered to be on an illegal blacklist.

The union had told ministers the regulations as originally drafted would not end blacklisting and had hoped the government would revise the proposed law, but this has not happened.

UCATT says the regulations fail to make blacklisting a criminal offence, despite the government in 1999 promising to introduce such measures. It adds the regulations only cover the limited definition of “trade union activities” and specifically rule out protecting workers involved in “unofficial industrial action” from being blacklisted.

UCATT is also concerned that, under the regulations as they stand, “workers who downed tools due to safety concerns or who refused to undertake overtime, could be legally blacklisted”. Many of the 3,000-plus construction workers listed on industry blacklist uncovered last year were targeted for their safety activities.

The regulations also fail to provide automatic compensation for any blacklisted worker and workers on a blacklist are not entitled to be automatically informed of the fact, the union adds.

UCATT has also expressed dismay that in certain circumstances companies will still be legally able to draw up lists of trade unionists for recruitment practices, something it dubs “backdoor blacklisting”.

UCATT general secretary Alan Ritchie said: “The blacklisting regulations are fundamentally flawed. It is deeply disappointing that the government has failed to listen to the genuine concerns of trade unionists and have failed to make the appropriate amendments to the regulations.”

The regulations were laid before parliament on 5 January. They need to be agreed by both Houses of Parliament before they can be enacted into law.

The union representatives supported overwhelmingly an emergency motion proposed by UK site union UCATT. UCATT’s motion mandates the leadership of the BWI to “monitor any developments on blacklisting discovered in BWI affiliate countries” and, “assist unions in taking action where there are suspicions of a blacklist or where blacklisting practices have been confirmed.”

Alan Ritchie, general secretary of UCATT, said: “I am delighted that the BWI are committed to stamping out blacklisting wherever it exists. Blacklisting is a disgraceful, deceitful practice which ruins the lives of workers.”

UCATT says some of the companies involved in widespread blacklisting of construction trades unionists in the UK, uncovered by the Information Commissioner in February, are multinationals. It has emerged that many of these companies practice exemplary industrial relations policies in some countries, while undertaking entirely unethical practices in others.

The union says it has been working with construction unions in other countries to highlight abuses and pressure companies at an international level to amend their policies.

Anita Normark, the out-going BWI general secretary, said: “Blacklisting is an obscene anti-union practice used by unscrupulous companies all over the world to deprive workers of their rights and to rob trade unionists of their livelihood. We condemn blacklisting and believe that it should be punishable by law.”

Alan Ritchie added: “Having been at the forefront of the blacklisting scandal in the UK, UCATT are committed to assisting our sister unions in overcoming similar problems in their own countries.”

UCATT had argued the regulations should not just make it illegal to blacklist for “trade union activities” but should prevent blacklisting for “activities associated with trade unions”. It says the government has totally ignored this, which could leave workers vulnerable to blacklisting, with the risk “clearest in the event of workers stopping work due to serious safety concerns.”

Alan Ritchie, general secretary of UCATT, said: “Not only are these regulations entirely inadequate, the government’s consultation response favours the continuation of blacklisting in certain circumstances.” The union says the government also failed to address “the routine blacklisting of safety representatives and campaigners, which was a notable feature of the Consulting Association’s blacklisting practices.”

UCATT is concerned with the government’s statement “does not consider that a safety exemption should be created.”

It says it is “highly disturbed” that the failure to specifically protect safety representatives and the allowance of “vetting” for activities other than trade union matters, will mean that these workers will continue to be considered by employers to be “troublemakers” and “undesirable people” and as such will continue to be blacklisted.

The union says it will be working with sympathetic Labour MPs “to have the regulations radically overhauled.”

Nearly 10 months after it was confirmed by the Information Commissioner that blacklisting in the construction industry was rife, something common knowledge for decades among trade union reps in the sector, new laws outlawing the practice are in preparation and on 24 November 23 of its victims featured on the blacklist will start their tribunal cases.

But for electricians such as Colin Trousdale (above) it doesn’t mean the scandal is over. The cover story on the 21 November issue of The Guardian’s Work section reports Trousdale, 51, now has copies of his file after the ICO investigation.

The six-page document opens in 2006, shortly before he launched an unsuccessful employment tribunal claim for being blacklisted. The last entry is October 2008.

However Trousdale says that since last December he’s only had eight weeks’ work.

“I can only think that because I’ve raised health and safety concerns – and remember this is an industry in which 53 people died last year – I’m affecting profits and they don’t want me doing that,” he told the paper.

According to the government, the likes of Trousdale should get better protection from new laws due before Christmas. Draft laws have already been the subject of a consultation and do not have to be debated and once published, can be signed into law by the business secretary, Lord Mandelson.

MP John McDonnell wants a committee to consider the proposals to ensure they are properly worded and says this must be done soon or the result will be ineffective legislation. “The timing is critical,” he said. “We need to scrutinise the wording but if this goes on after Christmas we might lose that chance in the run-up to an election.”

Steve Kelly, 43, from Essex, was one of those who received a copy of his file. The 18-page document runs from 1998-2007 and includes minutes from a union branch meeting, along with allegations that Kelly was a “trouble maker”, involved in “intimidating workers to join the union” and was even “writing abuse on the toilet walls”.

“I was gobsmacked what they had on me,” said Kelly. He is one of 238 people to have received their file, out of 1,872 who have contacted the ICO.

The traditional route to legal redress is via an employment tribunal. So many cases have been submitted that they are being lumped together and will be heard in Manchester. The initial case management discussion is due to take place on 24 November, which will set a hearing date for the new year.

Dave Smith, 44, is one of those putting in a tribunal claim. His large file starts in 1999 and includes details on the car he drove, newspaper clippings and union correspondence.

He says: “The file specifically identifies incidents when I raised health and safety concerns. At no point is my competence as an engineer questioned. I believe the folder is prima facie evidence of deliberate and vindictive discrimination and victimisation.” Smith has left the industry because he couldn’t get work.

For the Labour MP John McDonnell, the blacklisting scandal requires a public inquiry so that those affected can properly air their grievances and those responsible can be cross-examined. “This is one of the worst ever cases of organised abuses of human rights in the UK,” he said.

For Colin Trousdale, the best solution is a simple one. “I am not interested in the money, I am just interested in getting back to work,” he says.

If you think that The Consulting Association held a file on you, ring the ICO on 08456 306060 or 01625 545745 between 9am-5pm, Monday to Friday and choose option one

 From the files: The notes that scuppered the blacklisted workers’ careers

The Consulting Agency’s blacklist files were held on a card index, organised much like a local police intelligence system. They typically had a name, address and national insurance number, and some included material such as newspaper clippings, photographs, copies of union correspondence and reports from companies. The companies were identified by code numbers (the meanings of which have since been decoded). Those files that have been released have been redacted where they identify individuals other than the subject, to protect that person’s privacy.

Mick Anderson, 40, married with three children, from Kerry, Ireland Submitted 250 job applications and took courses to keep his electrician training up to date but was out of work for 16 months. Anderson and his family moved to the Irish Republic three years ago because of the blacklist, but he has struggled to find work. His file includes this extract: “Information received by 3271/81 site manager at Heather T5 that the above is ‘not recommended’ by amicus.”

George Fuller, 64, single, from London A bricklayer from Forest Gate, Fuller has a file that covers 1990 to 1998 but has been an active trade union member since the 1960s and was involved in several major disputes during the 1970s. “I think there must be another file,” he says.

John Winstanley, 66, married with three children, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, from Liverpool This retired joiner’s file was opened in 1975, when it was held by the Economic League, and ends in 2002. It has details on his heart bypass surgery in 2001. He is described as an “an old-style communist” in one entry. “I heard about the blacklist when I was an apprentice,” he says. “You tried to beat it any way you could.”

Darren O’Grady, 47, married with two children, from London O’Grady, an electrician, left the industry in 1990 after repeatedly failing to secure work and moved to America. Now back in the UK, he is a tutor with the TUC. “I am disappointed that the people who fingered me cannot be identified,” he says.

UCATT general secretary Alan Ritchie said: “Hundreds of construction workers had their lives ruined by the blacklisters. Many of them were forced out of the construction industry. This is the first opportunity workers have had to win justice from the construction companies who blacklisted them.”

The union says “much of the information contained on the blacklist related to a worker’s union membership. In particular workers who had taken on the role of a health and safety representative or had been a whistleblower on dangerous sites were targeted.”

George Guy, regional secretary for UCATT’s north-west region, said: “A large number of UCATT’s activists in the North West were blacklisted, these workers deserve justice. Everyone involved in blacklisting must be brought to book.”

The union says because of the absence of an explicit blacklisting law, Ian Kerr, the boss of blacklisting organisation The Consulting Association, was charged with data protection offences.

The former Special Branch officer pleaded guilty and was fined £5,000, a penalty described by the Information Commissioner Christopher Graham “as simply inappropriate”.

He added: “Here’s a blatant example of a business making a lot of money by trading in people’s data, which I believe parliament could stop if we activated a custodial sentence for the worst offenders.”

* Protest: 9.30am, Tuesday 24 November, Manchester Employment Tribunal, Alexandra House, 14-22 Parsonage, Manchester M3 2JA.

“The newly launched UCATT poster campaign to inform every building worker who appears on the blacklist is much needed. We want every blacklisted worker to have access to their file. The whole process would of course be made a lot easier if the Information Commissioner sent a letter directly to the home addresses of the workers on the blacklist file.

“As a support group representing blacklisted building workers from various diffrent unions, some of our members have had their working lives ruined by the illegal blacklisting operations of the major contractors.

“The vast majority of the over 3,000 workers on the blacklist still do not even realise that the blacklist exists, let alone that they are on it and have been denied employment because of it. So the UCATT campaign poster stuck up in building site canteens is good publicity.

At present, not a single one of the major contractors who perpetuated the blacklist has been brought to justice but we have made it our mission to ensure that this will not remain the case for long. The more workers who access their file, the more chance of bringing a successful claim against the guilty parties.”

House of Commons meeting
Union Rights = Human Rights
6pm Tues 6th October
House of Commons

Confirmed Speakers:
John McDonnell MP – will be discussing the latest position relating to the draft Blacklisting Regulations going through parliament
Prof. Keith Ewing (author of Ruined Lives: Institute of Employment Rights report on blacklisting) – will be discussing Human Rights issues and ET cases
David Clancy (Head of Information Commissioners Office Investigation team)
Sean Curran (solicitor taking data protection cases)
Blacklisted building workers

for more info contact:
blacklistSG@googlemail.com www.hazards.org/blacklistblog

Blacklist Support Group

Earlier this year it was revealed that the Consulting Association was operating a blacklist of construction workers. There were over 3,000 names on the blacklist and 44 major construction companies were using The Consulting Association’s services to blacklist workers.

After the blacklisting scandal was revealed the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) established a hotline so that people who believed that they had been blacklisted could find out if they were on the list and could then request a copy of their file. However, it is understood that many blacklisted workers have not so far been identified.

UCATT has launched a poster campaign targeting sites across Britain, providing details of how workers can contact the ICO to discover if they have been blacklisted and how to access their file.

Workers who are members of UCATT are being encouraged to contact their regional Office “at the earliest possible opportunity to see if they have a claim against the company/companies that blacklisted them.”

UCATT general secretary Alan Ritchie said: “Ian Kerr and the construction bosses ruined the lives of countless construction workers by operating a blacklist for decades. Everyone who was blacklisted has a right to know who blacklisted them and why. The blacklisters must no be allowed to get away with their despicable actions.”

The union says it is seeking “the maximum possible publicity for their campaign” as many of the blacklisted workers may have been forced out of the industry in order to find work.

Alan Ritchie said: “As blacklisting was not illegal it is often extremely difficult to achieve financial retribution from the companies involved. However every case is different and it is essential that all blacklisted UCATT members contact their regional offices to see if a claim is possible.” UCATT poster [pdf].

‘Ruined Lives’, commissioned by the union from the Institute of Employment Rights and written by Professor Keith Ewing, was submitted as evidence to the government’s consultation on blacklisting. It says the regulations to be introduced by the government should specify that it is illegal to blacklist anyone because of “activities associated with trade unions” and that if a blacklist is discovered it should be forfeited and all the people on the list notified that they have been blacklisted.

The report also argues that to use or maintain a blacklist must be a specific criminal offence. And it adds if a worker has been blacklisted then they should receive an automatic award for basic compensation. Where the blacklisting has resulted in loss, there should be an entitlement for an additional compensatory award, it says.

UCATT general secretary Alan Ritchie commented: “While we welcome the government’s commitment to introduce regulations to outlaw blacklisting it is essential that they are fully comprehensive.”

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber reiterated his support for action, telling delegates to TUC’s annual congress this week the union movement should “make sure the disgusting anti-democratic practice of blacklisting is outlawed once and for all” and condemned the “shameful activities” of The Consulting Association, the blacklisting organisation shutdown in February by the Information Commissioner, and the major construction firms than controlled and bankrolled the operation.