Outrage That New Regulations Will Fail to End Blacklisting

Construction union UCATT fears that new regulations designed to outlaw blacklisting contain so many loopholes they will not deter the practice. In fact the Government’s consultation document appears to give the green light to employers to blacklist in certain circumstances.

Last Wednesday (December 2) the Government published its response to the consultation on blacklisting and committed itself to produce the necessary regulations.

In Ruined Lives UCATT’s submission to the blacklisting consultation, the union argued that the regulations should not just make it illegal to blacklist for “trade union activities” but should prevent blacklisting for “activities associated with trade unions”. The Government has totally ignored this key concern.

The difference is clearest in the event of workers stopping work due to serious safety concerns. This is considered to be unofficial industrial action. Such unofficial industrial action, which is legal, would not be covered by the proposed regulations and companies could continue to discriminate workers who took part in such a stoppage.

The Government’s response appears to encourage this. It says: “. The Government believes such [unofficial] industrial action is especially disruptive and injurious to orderly industrial relations because, by definition, the trade union has not endorsed and controlled it.”

Alan Ritchie, General Secretary of UCATT, said: “The Government has repeatedly promised to outlaw blacklisting. The proposed regulations fail to achieve this. Not only are these regulations entirely inadequate, the Government’s consultation response favours the continuation of blacklisting in certain circumstances.”

The Government also fails to address the routine blacklisting of safety representatives and campaigners, which was a notable feature of the Consulting Association’s blacklisting practices.

The Government gives credit to the Heating and Ventilating Contractors Association call that, “vetting of prospective employees was necessary to weed out trouble-makers, criminal elements or other undesirable people”. Its document says: “virtually all vetting activity which should normally have nothing to do with trade union matters, is left unaffected”. The Government’s response also clearly says it, “does not consider that a safety exemption should be created”.

UCATT are 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 “trouble-makers” and “undesirable people” and as such will continue to be blacklisted.

Before becoming law the new regulations have to be debated and approved by both Houses of Parliament. UCATT will be stepping up their campaign and working with sympathetic Labour MPs to have the regulations radically overhauled

For Further information contact Barckley Sumner on 0780 2329235

UCATT represents 125,000 members employed in the construction industry throughout the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland

Note to Editors: Blacklisting is not currently illegal the Government had originally intended to outlaw the practice and made provision to do so in the 1999 Employment Relations Act. However the necessary regulations were never introduced, as there was not any concrete evidence that blacklisting was still taking place.

 In March 2009 it was revealed following an investigation by the Information Commissioners Office that a company the Consulting Association was operating a blacklist in the construction industry. Over 40 major construction companies were using the blacklist, which contained the names and information of excess of 3,000 construction workers.

In July 2009 Ian Kerr who ran the Consulting Association was fined just £5,000 for Data Protection Offences, despite the Consulting Association having a turnover of over £100,000 per annum.