Dear All

On the 27th November 2012 at the House of Commons Scottish Affairs Select Committee Ian Kerr, former Chief Officer of the Consulting Association spilt the beans about an illegal database holding information on around 3,200 construction workers. Being active about health and safety issues was one of the reasons some individuals had a file on the database. Naturally union activity was another. In 4 hours worth of testimony Mr Kerr identified the numerous construction companies who financed, supported and used the illegal database, as well as individual company employees.

In 2009 the Consulting Association was closed down and Mr Kerr was prosecuted and fined £5,000.00. Some large organisations in the construction industry was shown to be operating a blacklist.

Do the revelations from Mr Kerr mean that the construction industry’s initiative ‘Respect for People’ – started in 2001 – was a charade?

As an aside on the 9th August 2011 SHP ran an article on a council Chief Executive who had refused to wear a hard hat when visiting a construction site. The article had 97 comments posted in 3 days. In total 210 comments were posted with many vitriolic posts about the Chief Executive or the site manager. Most comments were along the lines that rules are rules and hard hats must be worn whatever the circumstances.

I understand 9th August article attracted the most comments of any SHP report. Meanwhile the SHP article on Mr Kerr’s revelations has attracted 3 posts, one of which is mine! A reflection of some people in the construction industry thinking that it’s only worker’s behaviour that needs to change perhaps.

Cheers.

Nigel

The difference being John that this was a sophisticated operation that meant workers were tarnished with absolutely no evidence and this information was then used nationally.
A bit different from 'a word in your ear' as there was no escaping from it.

You are about to see some very big companies make some very big pay outs and that should act as a deterrent for many.

Nigel

Commenting on your observations in reverse, it appears people like to provide tit bits, hence the hard hat article attracted lots of comments. I think when it comes to topics with more substance there is the likelihood that people will move on to a more softer issue, like 'is it a RIDDOR?' Such is life.

I have commented several times about this immoral practice. All the more shameful because the supposed 'great and the good' within industry were signed up to this consultancy service. Those organisations (some of whom I have worked for) and individuals within them have not yet been held accountable for their actions. I do hope this is rectified.

As for the Respect for People initiative, it goes without saying that this and other similar initiatives are nothing more than a farce. Moreover, I have never held much faith in self-governing initiatives such as Corporate Governance, CSR and even Zero Tolerance, Beyond Zero, or whatever slant you want to put on it. Workers are so not gullible either. Leading by example (talk is cheap) is the best form initiative to promote. Paraphrasing Jim Reason, organisations which abuse and deceive their employees deserve all that they get back in return.

"The government's Crossrail project is embroiled in a scandal over the blacklisting of construction workers after a senior manager on the rail link emerged as a regular user of the blacklist in a previous job"

"However, Ian Kerr, chief officer of the Consulting Association, told a committee of Scottish MPs last week that his members had talked at length about Crossrail during meetings to discuss the list. He claimed 'An awful lot of discussion took place at Consulting Association meetings about the Crossrail project." He also confirmed that firms blacklisted workers from the Olympic Park and a range of other projects including Portcullis House, the Admiralty, the Ministry of Defence's Whitehall HQ, GCHQ, the Jubilee line and the new Wembley stadium"

http://www.guardian.co.u...ail-blacklisting-scandal

I concur withn your posts JohnMurray - I heard on numerous occasions on a couple of the projects you mention about the 'blacklist' - I thought it was a wind up or a case of 'sour grapes' at the start but began to wonder 'when the same names' cropped up on another project.

You are about to see some very big companies make some very big pay outs and that should act as a deterrent for many.

We'll see.
Some head of some insignificant department will "fall on his sword" and accept the "me not the company" blame.
The blacklisting will continue, with another patsy organisation. This time at several arms length, but only a phone call away.
The construction industry is awash with illegal, immoral and irrational practices.
Many of the companies ought to be in prisons, not building them.

There seems to be a general consensus that big construction companies tend to be amoral, on the face of this evidence that seems to be a reasonable assumption.
However what about clients, they also share the responsibility?
And of many these really large construction projects a funded by the taxpayer. Until cost ceases to be the only deciding factor then there will be no change.

Virtually every job I have knowledge of, has overrun & overspent; the blame here lies entirely with client procurement rather than construction management failures.