Blacklisting Firms 'Should Be Barred'

Construction firms that blacklist, or do not make amends for previous blacklisting, should be denied public contracts, it has been suggested.

In a report, published today (14 March) by the Scottish Affairs Committee, it outlines how companies caught blacklisting can make amends and how best practice can be taken forward to ensure the issue does not happen again.

It added that any firms that do not take these appropriate steps should be barred from gaining any publicly funded work.

In 2009, the practice of blacklisting in the construction sector was revealed. Following an investigation, files on more than 3,000 construction workers had been compiled by a consulting company. The data included personal information such as union membership and activity, as well as whether the individual had a history of raising health and safety concerns on building sites. The information was subsequently sold to a number of construction firms who then used the data to vet job applicants. Some of those on the list believe they were denied work as a result.

While steps have been taken to ensure blacklisting does not reoccur, the Committee said that ending the act is not enough. It explained that firms having been caught blacklisting should undertake a process of "self-cleaning". This includes an admission of guilt, paying full compensation and taking other appropriate remedial steps.


Going forward, the committee said an agreement between unions and French energy giant EDF, outlawing blacklisting on the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in Somerset, should become "best practice" for the industry.

Ian Davison MP, Chair of the Committee, said: "Had these companies not been caught, blacklisting would still be happening, and indeed we have heard evidence that it is still going on in some areas. Although blacklisting is illegal now, it is not enough to just end the practice.

"Reparations must be made, and steps must be taken so that we are pro-actively preventing these practices - and the health and safety problems they lead to - rather than just stopping it when it happens.

"Companies that are caught blacklisting now, or do not make the proper reparations, or do not apply agreed standards of practice in their contracts, should be 'blacklisted' themselves and barred from obtaining any publicly funded work.


"It is impossible to fully quantify the damage that may have been done to people's careers and livelihoods, and to their families, as well as to health and safety on site, by these practices, but restitution must be made.

"It must not be left just to the companies themselves to determine what this should be, but it must be agreed after negotiations with the relevant trade unions and representatives of blacklisted workers. It must also be applied to all the victims of blacklisting who have yet to be identified, and where the victim has died, compensation must go to their families."

The committee also paid tribute to the Welsh government for taking a "clear and unequivocal ethical stance" against blacklisting and to the Blacklisting Support Group, which has campaigned over a long number of years.

Mr Davidson said the committee would now write to the coalition UK government, the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish governments and local authority associations, urging them to adopt its proposals and to use their financial power to ensure that blacklisting is abolished.

(JP/IT)