It looks like the big players are going to throw money at it and admit nothing, hoping other stories will make this look trivial.

I just wish people would stop asking questions when they don't want to hear the answers... Tell someone that they are in breach of a duty of care and ... well you know the rest I guess

splurge This discussion forum is a public one and read by a wide spectrum of people in the UK and also abroad. For the benefit of those of us who know little or nothing about the subject of your questions, please could you provide some information about it or least one or more links to relevant websites?

My union is quite interested in the application of justice on this subject. As is noted on their website: http://www.unitetheunion...onstructionblacklisting/ Note the international element..

Probably nothing..... http://ioshblog.tumblr.c...32729256005/blacklisting http://www.iosh.co.uk/bo.../worker_involvement.aspx

Further to Graham’s request at #6: An organisation called the Economic League was started in 1919 with the remit to help prevent ‘subversion’ against ‘free enterprise’. This it did in the shadows of secrecy for many years, mainly by holding secret files on people supposedly a threat to companies and the nation. During the more public exposure of their activities during the 1980s and early 1990s it was revealed that a substantial amount of information they held was inaccurate. In part, information was used by Economic League supporters to stop people listed from getting work – hence the blacklisting terminology. Following a Parliamentary select committee investigation in 1990, the secret backstabbing activities of the Economic League received greater publicity and in 1993, they closed down. One of the League’s staff – Ian Kerr – was then approached by some Construction companies to keep the files on construction workers. This he did and then became the main director of The Consulting Association. With a few staff, The Consulting Association received financial, structural and organisational support from a load of construction companies, many of which were household names. In 2009 the offices of The Consulting Association were raided by officials from the Information Commissioner who took away only the files that related to the construction workers. It was closed down. 42 construction companies were identified as being involved. As the files were read it was found that, as well as being listed for being active ‘trade union’ members, many were listed because of raising health and safety issues. The ‘blacklist’ was deemed illegal and Mr Kerr was fined £5,000. Apparently the fine, Mr Kerr’s legal costs and other costs were paid for by a construction company. A number of companies who had paid for and used the illegal services of The Consulting Association were sent letters saying they should not use the information they had obtained. And that was it. However the trade unions and the Blacklist Support Group have not let the issue drop and recently several companies have indicated they will establish a compensation scheme for blacklisted workers. Of course this will be on the basis that these companies are not liable. It has also been confirmed by the Information Commissioner that some of the information held on the illegal blacklist must have come from the police and/or the security services. Rather ironically the Information Commissioner cannot release the specific information because it would be in breach of Data Protection legislation. As Richard Littlejohn might say ‘You couldn’t make it up’!! I was at a Construction Summit in 2001 at the QEII Centre in Westminster where the great and the good from the Construction Industry talked about ‘drinking in the last chance saloon’. This led to the ‘Respect for People’ initiative where industry leaders waxed lyrical about the need to change ‘industry culture’, eradicate the ‘macho culture’ and treat workers – and others – with respect etc etc. Indeed I have even heard construction Directors of Safety saying that a sign of a ‘positive health and safety culture’ is workers stopping work if they feel their health and safety is a risk. And all the while they were supporting, financing, using and maintaining an organisation whose information was helping to deny employment to workers who had raised health and safety issues on construction sites. If anybody wants further details of this despicable construction industry supported illegal activity, try: www.ico.org.uk/news/curr...s/consulting_association www.hazards.org/blacklistblog/ Cheers. Nigel

Regarding the post at #4 Sorry about that I was working on something else and pressed the wrong buttons.

with reference to the term 'constitutional' and rights under it - as far as I am aware we in the UK are officially still 'subjects' not citizens and nor do we have a written constitution

Graham #13 My reference was to the evidence the IC has about the police and security services supplying information on individuals to the Consulting Association - I understand this is the information that is being withheld. In passing: Mr Kerr died of natural causes not long after he had given his evidence to the Scottish Affairs Select Committee. However his wife gave an interview after her husband had died, saying that the IC only took the files related to the construction workers. Apparently this represented about 10% of the files being held at the time. She confirmed that for the three days following the IC raid, Mr Kerr burnt all the remaining files. How unfortunate. I assume the construction companies were pleased when an industrial tribunal did not allow a case to go ahead because the individual was not an employee; non-employees being the employment status of choice for many construction organisations. However European based law, which the UK has voluntarily signed up to - on its citizen's behalf - is often based on workers' rights, not employees only. So matters legal now get interesting for those workers who were blacklisted - if they can find out whether or not they were blacklisted, of course. Cheers. Nigel

There is this myth that we are subjects not citizens; that has not been the case since the British Nationality Act 1948 established the status of Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies for us. Since then we have been largely reclassified as British citizens, with a separate category for British Overseas Territories citizens. The other myth is that we do not have written constitution- we do but it is a) not a single document but bits of legalisation describing how parliament etc works and could be said to include the Human Rights Act and b) is not legislation subject to special procedures for amendment like most countries’ constitutions. The issue of the black listing is relevant to H&S as one of the reasons people were put on the list was for raising H&S issues which is matter protected under the Employment Rights’ Act 1996 (‘the whistle blower act’) and this seems to be a case of companies (major companies) conspiring to get around this piece of legislation.