Council welcomes breakthrough in blacklisting campaign

The Highland Council has welcomed a breakthrough in the national campaign to outlaw the compilation of construction industry blacklists, which detail covertly gathered information on construction trade unionism and the employment history of employees.

Eight large construction firms have announced that they intend to compensate workers who were unlawfully blacklisted and denied work for long periods as the result of being blacklisted.  The firms have also apologised to the workers whose names were stored in a secret database.
At a recent meeting, the three leaders of The Highland Council - Leader Drew Hendry, Depute Leader David Alston and Convener Jimmy Gray - presented a notice of motion strongly opposing blacklisting, which was unanimously supported.  They were made aware of the issue by trade union representatives at a recent Joint Consultation Group meeting.

Councillor Alston said: “I am pleased to see that there is growing recognition by the construction industry that this practice was unacceptable. Firms admitting they engaged in an abuse of the civil rights of thousands of UK workers is an important step, which I hope will turn into practical action to compensate those who were victimised. It is important that other companies now follow this lead."

The move follows years of campaigning by the workers, who said they were often barred from working for raising legitimate concerns about health and safety on building sites. Many say their lives were devastated as they were prevented from getting jobs for years.

More than 40 firms in the construction industry funded a clandestine agency that kept files on more than 3,200 workers that they deemed to be politically disruptive. The blacklisting agency operated for 15 years until it was raided and closed down by a watchdog in 2009.