1 Introduction
1. Blacklisting is the practice of systematically
denying individuals employment on the basis of information, accurate
or not, held in some kind of database. It was an activity of which
the Economic League, an organisation founded in 1919 to combat
what its members saw as subversion and opposition to free enterprise,
was accused in the 1980s. This led to media attention and an inquiry
by the then-Employment Committee of the House of Commons. The
accuracy of the information held by the Economic League and the
use to which it was put came under intense scrutiny, and the League
was disbanded in 1993.
2. Thereafter, an organisation called the Consulting
Association (TCA) maintained information on individuals and supplied
it to companies in the construction industry. TCA grew out of
the Services Group, a membership organisation of construction
firms, which had had links with the Economic League towards the
end of its life. The Chief Officer of TCA was Ian Kerr, who had
worked for the Economic League for many years. The Consulting
Association was raided by the Information Commissioner's Office
and closed down in early 2009. We return to TCA in more detail
in the next chapter.
3. Following the raid on TCA by the Information
Commissioner's Office, regulations were introduced by the previous
government to strengthen the law against blacklisting. Denial
of a job for discriminatory reasons such as trade union membership
was made illegal and blacklisting was statutorily prohibited under
the Employment Relations Act 1999 (Blacklists) Regulations 2010.
We consider whether these regulations are sufficient and whether
there should be further legislative action later in this Report.
4. This Report was inspired by our previous inquiry
into health and safety in Scotland. We heard accusations that
workers who raised health and safety concerns, especially in the
construction industry, were labelled as 'troublemakers', and likely
to be denied further employment. This, added to the fact that
the rate of fatal accidents in the workplace is higher in Scotland
than in the rest of the UK, gave us significant cause for concern.
We therefore decided to conduct an inquiry into the issue of blacklisting,
both on grounds of health and safety, and for other activities.
5. This is an interim Report. Although we have
held a large number of oral evidence sessions and have received
a considerable amount of written evidence, we have by no means
concluded our inquiry. The purpose of this Report is to draw the
attention of the public to the evidence we have taken so far,
to comment on the situation as we see it now, and to seek further
information to establish the truth of the matter. Although this
Report concentrates on historic incidents of blacklisting and
the activities of the Consulting Association, we remain unconvinced
that the practice is purely an historic one, and we will continue
to seek evidence as to whether individuals are still being blacklisted,
as well as consider what further work can be done to eradicate
the practice.
6. We are grateful to all the witnesses who have
appeared in front of the Committee in the course of this inquiry
so far, and to those who have submitted written evidence. As will
be discussed later, we have heard testimony which could charitably
be described as conflicting. We are far from certain that all
of our witnesses have told us 'the truth, the whole truth and
nothing but the truth', despite many of them being under oath.
We reserve the right to call some of our witnesses back to give
further evidence and clarify issues which we regard as being confused
or uncertain. We have also encountered varying levels of cooperation
from some of the construction firms with whom we have dealt, and
we are grateful to those who have approached this inquiry in a
spirit of helpfulness and full disclosure. We regret, however,
that this has not universally been the case.
7. We note that Mr Kerr passed away shortly after
he gave evidence to us. We offer our condolences to his family,
and are grateful to him for his candour and to Mrs Kerr for her
continuing assistance.
8. We are also aware that some of the witnesses
from whom we have heard evidence are subject to imminent or ongoing
litigation. We have been careful to respect the House's sub
judice resolution and avoid commenting directly on matters
before the courts, and we have no wish to prejudice any cases.
Again, some witnesses have been more open than others. However,
we firmly believe that the issue of blacklisting is an important
one and requires wider scrutiny than can be pursued by specific
legal actions.
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