{"id":175,"date":"2009-08-18T14:10:51","date_gmt":"2009-08-18T13:10:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hazards.org\/blacklistblog\/?p=175"},"modified":"2009-08-18T14:27:41","modified_gmt":"2009-08-18T13:27:41","slug":"blacklisted-workers-demand-strongest-legislation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/blacklistblog\/2009\/08\/18\/blacklisted-workers-demand-strongest-legislation\/","title":{"rendered":"Blacklisted workers demand &#8216;strongest legislation&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>from the Blacklist Support Group:<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>Blacklist Support Group<\/strong> (a network of building workers blacklisted in the Consulting Association scandal) has filed a submission to the\u00a0consultation process\u00a0for the\u00a0proposed new Blacklisting Regulations.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0The full consultation\u00a0closes on Tues 18th August (it is being fast-tracked, as the Regulations have been &#8220;on the books&#8221; since 1999 but were never turned into law by the Secretary of State because of intense\u00a0business lobbying during a 2003 consultation process).<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<strong>John McDonnell MP<\/strong> (who has been championing the cause of the blacklisted construction workers in parliament)\u00a0said:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<em>&#8220;Only the strongest legislation will be able to protect workers from the scandal of blacklisting. That is why we are calling on the government for tough action.&#8221;<\/em><br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nThe key elements of the <strong>Blacklist Support Group<\/strong> submission are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Make the Regulation retrospective<\/strong> &#8211;\u00a0The major blacklisting employers, now caught red handed, had an input into the original consultation process through their Trade Associations. This delayed the implementation of the Regulations by many years. This exceptional situation should allow for the Regulations to be retrospective.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Regulations should cover all workers who stand up for their rights or raise concerns about health &amp; safety<\/strong> &#8211; not just trade unionists involved in &#8220;official action&#8221;\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n<li><strong>Blacklisting should be a criminal offence<\/strong> with fines and jail sentences as a potential penalty<\/li>\n<li><strong>Companies found guilty of blacklisting should be debarred from bidding for publicly funded projects<\/strong> (The World Bank already has a similar sanction for companies found guilty of bribery\u00a0&amp; corruption)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Enhance the role of the Information Commissioner<\/strong> to allow\u00a0for pro-active investigations of\u00a0potential blacklisting companies and to rigorously prosecute offenders.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Recognise the\u00a0variety of employment relations in 2008<\/strong> &#8211; The major contractors\u00a0who operated the Consulting Association blacklist\u00a0rarely directly employ any skilled workers\u00a0themselves but instead\u00a0applied covert pressure to sub-contractors and Employment Agencies to remove individuals from site.\u00a0As\u00a0the workers have not been explicitly refused work by the main contractors; the guilty parties often get away scot free at a Tribunal. This loophole needs to be closed.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Blacklisting trade unionists is a Human Rights issue &#8211; <\/strong>Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights grants<em> \u201ceveryone the right to Freedom of Association and Assembly with others, including the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.\u201d<\/em> The ECHR became UK law in the Human Rights Act. Article 11 is not only limited\u00a0to direct employees or to those individuals seeking to gain employment directly with the blacklisting companies but to<em> \u201ceveryone\u201d.<\/em> The sole purpose of the data-base administered by The Consulting Association on behalf of the major building contractors was to blacklist trade union members and prevent them from gaining employment within the industry and was a deliberate and systematic breach of Article 11 of ECHR. It is a clear breach of the human rights to freedom of assembly and association for <em>every<\/em> individual on the database.<\/li>\n<li><strong>A\u00a0legal mechanism\u00a0similar to &#8220;Automatic Unfair Dismissal&#8221;<\/strong> should be introduced for any company found to operate the blacklist. To make Employment Tribunal cases less daunting for the claimant.<\/li>\n<li><strong>A Special Award of \u00a310,000<\/strong> for successful claimants at Employment Tribunals should be introduced in blacklisting cases to act as a deterrent. (In addition to the standard compensation for loss of earnings).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The full submission document from the <strong>Blacklist Support Group<\/strong>\u00a0is attached<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0for any interviews with blacklisted building workers, please contact:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"mailto:blacklistSG@googlemail.com\" target=\"_blank\">blacklistSG@googlemail.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0for\u00a0more indepth information\u00a0and photo&#8217;s\u00a0visit: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hazards.org\/blacklistblog\/\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.hazards.org\/blacklistblog\/<\/a>;<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.hazards.org\/victimisation\">www.hazards.org\/victimisation<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Blacklist Support Group<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>from the Blacklist Support Group: The Blacklist Support Group (a network of building workers blacklisted in the Consulting Association scandal) has filed a submission to the\u00a0consultation process\u00a0for the\u00a0proposed new Blacklisting Regulations. \u00a0The full consultation\u00a0closes on Tues 18th August (it is being fast-tracked, as the Regulations have been &#8220;on the books&#8221; since 1999 but were never &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/blacklistblog\/2009\/08\/18\/blacklisted-workers-demand-strongest-legislation\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Blacklisted workers demand &#8216;strongest legislation&#8217;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7,13],"class_list":["post-175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-blacklist-support-group","tag-the-consulting-association"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/blacklistblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/blacklistblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/blacklistblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/blacklistblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/blacklistblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/blacklistblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":181,"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/blacklistblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions\/181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/blacklistblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/blacklistblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/blacklistblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}