Anti-blacklisting campaigners believe the broadcasting of a high-profile TV documentary last night will help generate new political interest in ending the practice within the UK construction industry.
(Pictured: Unite activists in anti-blacklisting protest outside Manchester City training ground, May 2013)
Leading organisers have called on HR officers who may have watched the programme to come forward and help expose the practice.
Panorama aired for the first time an allegation that has not been made before on prime-time TV: that blacklisting is continuing and has been used against workers on Europe’s largest construction project, Crossrail in London.
Speaking after last night’s programme, Secretary of the Blacklist Support Group, Dave Smith, told UnionNews: “There are senior directors in these companies who deserve to go to prison for what they have done to people.
“But we’re hoping that after seeing Panorama, there will be other people in these companies, if they have any decency, they should come forward and tell us what they know.”
Senior officials at the GMB – which last week lodged legal claims for compensation and defamation at the High Court in London – believe the programme will encourage more victims of blacklisting to come forward and could also encourage potential whistleblowers to give evidence that vetting and surveillance of union activists is continuing.
It emerged last week that the professional association for HR officers – the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development – had begun an investigation into “a small number” of its own members who are accused of organising anti-union blacklisting in the construction industry.
One of them now works in the North Sea oil industry, where concerns continue over a decades-old anti-union practice known as NRB [Not Required Back] which some believe is still being used to prevent activists from working offshore.
The edition of Panorama featured a number of blacklisted workers, including Howard Nolan and Frank Morris.
The reporter highlighted how much of the information held on blacklist files was highly personal, but also frequently wrong.
Howard Nolan has been unable to work in the construction industry since he was blacklisted during a dispute on the Jubilee extension project on the London Underground.
He told the programme he had never worked on the Jubilee site.
Frank Morris lost his job when Crossrail terminated the contract of the company he worked for after he had raised safety concerns on the £16bn project.
Unite officials believe an international campaign designed to put pressure on partners in the BFK joint venture which is building the London rail link is beginning to have an impact on executives and shareholders.
This comes as it emerged that Members of the Scottish Parliament are taking further steps towards a public inquiry into the practice.
Senior officials in the three main construction industry unions – GMB, UCATT and Unite – have been called to give evidence next week to the Public Petitions Committee of the Scottish Parliament.
They have called on MSPs to urge the SNP government to conduct a full, independent public inquiry into blacklisting north of the border.
Campaigners are also demanding that companies which continue to practice blacklisting are banned from tendering for future public contracts.
Dave Smith said: “The Panorama evidence is damning.
“Blacklisting is not some historic issue – it is happening today on Crossrail, the largest publicly funded project in the UK.
“Yet the blacklisting firms continue to act as if they are above the law. The blacklisting scandal is crying out for a full Leveson-style public inquiry.
“After Panorama, it is time for politicians to act.
“If celebrity phone-hacking deserved a full public inquiry, why should blacklisted building workers be any different?”
You can watch our report on the House of Commons Scottish Affairs Committee investigation into blacklisting here:
Union News
