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We live in an age in which conspiracy theories abound—but the blacklisting of building workers by big construction companies via the Consulting Association was no theory—it actually was a real live conspiracy.
The companies set up a structure which allowed them to submit names and details of workers they deemed to be unsuitable to a central list and to check prospective employees, or the employees of subcontractors on their sites, against this list.
The emphasis throughout was on secrecy, with telephone access to sensitive information restricted to only a few, with lists of names submitted destroyed at the end of each working day and no acknowledgement that such a system existed.
As a result of this process, workers were denied employment without explanation, financial hardship was caused, lives were disrupted and sometimes ruined. There was no right of appeal or challenge to the information held or the decisions made, and those affected, though they may have had their suspicions, had no evidence that they were being discriminated against in such a systematic and methodical way.
All this was done by companies who benefitted as a result, since industrial relations or health and safety disputes on site could result in delays to contracts, penalty clauses being invoked and financial loss.
We believe that most of the companies involved are genuine in their regret at having been caught—however, we are not convinced that the process would have been halted had it not been detected. We also completely reject the verbal gymnastics of some companies which asserted that, because not everyone on the blacklist was automatically refused employment, the files did not constitute a blacklist. None of these records was compiled in order to assist any of the individuals involved in finding work.
We note that many of the entries on blacklisting files are little more than gossip, and that whole groups of employees were blacklisted en masse.
This is an interim Report, drawing attention to what we have found so far, and the Committee intends to continue examining what happened in the past.
However, we believe that is not sufficient, and we therefore wish to launch consultations on four further topics:
- Whether blacklisting continues;
- What compensation, how determined and from whom, should be provided to those individuals affected;
- Punishment—blacklisting was done for financial gain and latterly was illegal. Throughout the entire process it was morally indefensible, as most of those now caught have accepted. The defence for those individuals operating the system has been that they were simply following orders—should this be acceptable and, if so, what of those who gave the orders and those who gained financially as a result;
- Whether changes in the law are required in relation to any of the above.
For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to make it absolutely clear that we believe, on the evidence that we have seen so far, that the process of blacklisting by a secret and unaccountable process was and is morally indefensible and that those firms and individuals involved in operating the system should have known this.
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