Taking Out The Trash

Select committee slams blacklisting firms' "verbal gymnastics"

MPs have condemned the “verbal gymnastics” of construction companies which have sought to play down their role in the blacklisting of union members.

The interim report from the Scottish Affairs Select Committee says it will carry out further consultation on whether the blacklisting continues, the punishment for those involved and the compensation for those affected.

The committee has been taking evidence since last year on the scandal which was exposed when the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) raided The Consulting Association (TCA) in 2009. It unearthed a database of more than 3,200 names compiled on behalf of more than 44 firms used to weed out potential employees.

The MPs’ report says: “By the end of TCA’s life it certainly was illegal and all those involved should have know that. We consider it unethical, and to be condemned. We do not accept the argument made in self justification that blacklisting did not occur because people were not automatically excluded from employment. This is evasive wordplay.”

Building firms Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd, Balfour Beatty and Skanska all gave evidence to the committee along with Ian Kerr who ran the Consulting Association. He died only weeks after his appearance where he confirmed that McAlpine’s had given £10,000 to help start the operation and been closely involved throughout; including paying his £5,000 fine when he was convicted of data protection offences.

Although the ICO was initially praised for its groundbreaking investigation there is criticism from MPs for its actions. In particular its decision to seize only 5%-10% of all the material in TCA offices and a perceived lack of effort in contacting people on the blacklist.

“We find the ICO’s justification for leaving behind the vast majority of documents at TCA’s office unconvincing,” the report says. “We accept that the ICO was concerned that the warrant which it had obtained was limited in scope, but we regret that more documents were not seized. Even if the Consulting Association is now defunct, there remains the possibility that its activities could have been more widespread than has so far come to light. A greater degree of curiosity on the ICO’s part might have demonstrated this one way or the other.”

A spokesman for the Blacklist Support Group said: “The so-called captains of industry are in complete denial. Even with mountains of evidence they refuse to admit their guilt. They are like the News International at the beginning of the phone hacking scandal.

“Blacklisted workers applaud the Select Committee interim report but just like phone hacking, the full story of the human rights abuse by big business and undoubted police collusion will only be exposed in a full Leverson-style pubic inquiry.

“Anyone who bothers to look knows that blacklisting still continues today: on Crossrail the evidence is blatant. 

“So long as blacklisted workers are denied jobs to support our families the weasel words of the multi-nationals are worthless. The interim report is a big step forward but the campaign for justice continues.”

The report from MPs casts doubt on claims by Skanska that its relationship with the Consulting Association was down to one individual, Stephen Quant, who has now left the company.

“It seems implausible that no-one else in the company had the slightest inkling that potential employees or subcontractors were being systematically checked against a database,” the report says.

Meanwhile it says that it believes that Balfour Beatty “regrets being caught, we were less convinced that management regretted its involvement with TCA”.

It asks the construction firm for a copy an internal review it carried out after the ICO raid which it has so far not disclosed.

As for Cullum McAlpine, the company director who gave evidence on his role with the Association, MPs say they are “not persuaded” by his description of that role being “hands-off”.

Steve Murphy, general secretary of the building union UCATT, said: “Every time there has been an evidence session we have learned more about the blacklisting scandal. A further call for evidence and fresh evidence sessions are to be warmly welcomed. The final Scottish Affairs Committee report should act as an essential building block for a full public inquiry into the blacklisting scandal.”

Legal protest groups targeted by corporate spies

The Campaign Against the Arms Trade, Ethical Consumer magazine and Reclaim the Streets were among the perfectly legal groups illegally targeted by an offshoot of the notorious Economic League, MPs have been told.

Jack Winder spent 30 years with the League – which kept files on people it considered subversives on behalf of corporations. He rose to become its director of research. He told MPs on the Scottish Affairs Select Committee that after the League folded he and a colleague, Stan Hardy, set up Caprim “to warn companies about threats to their well-being”.
He said clients did not include construction companies such as Sir Robert McAlpine, which gave Caprim
£10,000 as a “goodwill” donation, with the proviso that it kept clear of the work of the Consulting Association.
The Association was set up in 1993 by another former League official, Ian Kerr, to provide intelligence on individuals specifically for building firms. It was a raid on the Association by the Information Commissioner in 2009 which exposed the secret blacklisting operation and led to the MPs’ investigation. The committee had previously been told that McAlpine was instrumental in setting up the
Consulting Association. It paid the League £10,000 for its Services Group files, on individuals and organisations, set up for the construction industry after the building workers’ strike of 1972 to target those involved.
While Mr Kerr was collating information for dozens of construction companies, Mr Winder and Mr Hardy
were touting their advice to other sectors.
He said: “During the 1990s, the sorts of things which exercised our minds were campaigns against
multinational companies. You had the Transnational Information Exchange in Amsterdam, which had offshoots in this country, Multinational Monitor based in Washington. You had campaigns against the City of London culminating in three consecutive years of riots run by an outfit called Reclaim
The Streets. These were anarchists.
"We made it our business to find out what was going on and warn the companies.
“You had the whole ethical industry. People who set themselves up as arbiters about what was ethical.
They advised investors and how shareholders should vote.”
Mr Winder said they targeted campaigners against the defence, pharmaceutical and agrochemical
industries. He named GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Rhone-Poulenc, Zeneca, Monsanto, Rio Tinto, J P Morgan and Morgan Stanley as among Caprim’s clients.
He denied any links with the security services though he admitted that he regularly met Special Branch
officers while with the League.
Over 15 years, Caprim’s turnover totalled £1 million, according to Jack Winder, but folded in 2008 because it lost clients and he was looking to retire.
Ian Kerr died at the end of last year.

Filed for Tribune Feb 6, 2013

The spy who came in from the cold

Union blacklister Ian Kerr made his first public appearence since he was in the dock in 2010 for breaching data protection laws.

The occasion was a hearing of the Scottish Affairs Select Committee which is investigating blacklisting. A link to Parliament TV which carried the hearing is below.

I reported on the remarkable four-hour session for The Independent and for Union News. A further report is expected in Private Eye. Meanwhile the Financial Times, Observer, Daily Mirror, Morning Star and (comprehensively) Socialist Worker all carried reports (links below).

And hello to Alan the Mirror snapper who I stood with for nearly two hours in the rain outside Parliament so I could identify Kerr for him and ensure the public could put a face to the man who worked in the shadows.

Related articles

Blacklisting: Ian Kerr reveals how he spied on workers and the left

Rob the builder: Thousands of construction workers were denied jobs as they were put on a sinister blacklist

Blacklister Ian Kerr to face Scotland committee

Blacklisting is the scandal that now demands action | Seumas Milne

Crossrail project dragged into blacklist scandal

Blacklisted construction workers prepare IPCC complaint

I've a piece in Union News revealing that blacklisted construction workers are putting together a complaint to the Independent Police Complaints Commission. They want an investigation into alleged collusions between the police and the industry blacklisters. It follows a letter from Home Secretary Theresa May (right) to John McDonnell MP refusing a public inquiry and suggesting a police complaint instead.
You can read the full article here.

Meanwhile Tribune carries an article on how an employment tribunal has criticised the law which offers little protection to agency workers. The judgement was made in a case brought by blacklisted engineer Dave Smith.

Employment judges have criticised the lack of legal protection for an engineer blacklisted because of his trade union activities. Dave Smith, 46, took construction giant Carillion to an employment tribunal after he discovered his name was on the secret blacklist.

Carillion admitted that two of its subsidiaries had used the blacklisting services of the now defunct – and discredited – Consulting Association. But it argued it was not liable because Mr Smith was employed by an agency.

This argument was accepted by the tribunal at a hearing in January. But now, in a damning full judgement just released, the tribunal chair explained why they had to disallow Mr Smith’s claim.

You can read the full story here.

And finally, a quote from the Blacklist Support Group re the IPCC complaint arrived after I'd already filed, but is below:

"The blacklisting scandal is a festering sore in the construcion industry. The directors and senior managers of the supposedly most respectable blue chip firms have been involved in the sysematic breach of human rights for decades. Now we have the evidence that the state security services and the police are also involved.

"We demand answers:
How has confidential persoanl sensative information and operational surveillance material collected by the state ended up on an illegal blacklist operated by private companies?
Which officers were involved in the collusion?
What sanctions will they suffer for this abuse of power?

"Leverson has shone a light on the hidden links between the media and the police but we have been denied a similar investigation. Theresa May has forced us to go down the IPCC route but we will continue to demand a full public inquiry until we discover the truth about the web of the corruption between the state and big business."
ENDS

Blacklist inquiry calls on both sides of the border

A second Labour MP has called for a public inquiry into the construction industry blacklist and alleged links with the police and security services.

And now a motion has gone before the Scottish Parliament asking the government there to investigate.

Former Labour Cabinet Minister Michael Meacher MP (left) has written to the Home Secretary Theresa May demanding an inquiry into blacklisting. He has also asked her to refer the Consulting Association scandal to the Director of Public Prosecutions in order to prosecute the 44 construction firms involved in the illegal blacklisting of building workers.

Labour MP John McDonnell has also written to May calling for an inquiry. It follows allegations in The Observer of collusion between the police and the Consulting Association, which maintained the blacklist on behalf of construction companies.

David Clancy, an investigator from the Information Commissioner’s Office, gave evidence at a recent industrial tribunal that details in some of the files could only have come from state security sources.
Meanwhile the Scottish Government has been asked to mount its own investigation.

John Finnie, the SNP member for the Highlands and Islands (left), submitted a motion to the Scottish Parliament which said any collusion between the police and blacklisting was completely unacceptable. It was back by more than a dozen fellow MSPs.
The motion was amended by Labour MSP Drew Smith  (right) to “call on the Scottish Government to report to the Parliament on the question of whether territorial police forces or other agencies in Scotland have been involved in collating or passing on information that has been used to inform blacklists”.

(H/T to the Better Nation blog for the details on the Scottish blacklisting motion)

In These Times

The latest blacklisting revelations have made it across to America where the radical magazine In These Times carries a report by Michelle Chen.

For years, they wondered why they kept getting turned down for jobs, even when they seemed well qualified. The workers might have all just chalked it up to bad luck if they hadn’t eventually discovered they were at the center of an extraordinary conspiracy.

You can read the full article here.

The story continues to find its way into new outlets with the magazine Public Service also reporting the issue.

Call for inquiry into new blacklisting claims

Following the front page in The Observer at the weekend (with, cough, some material supplied by the author) Labour MP John McDonnell has written to the Home Secretary calling for a public inquiry.

Dear Home Secretary,

You will be aware of the article in the Observer on Sunday concerning the involvement of the Police and Security Services in the compilation of a blacklist of workers by the Consulting Association used to deny these workers access to employment.

The operation of the blacklist is contrary to law and morally reprehensible but to also discover that the Police and Security Services have been involved in the blacklisting process is extremely worrying and a matter of considerable public interest.

I am writing therefore to ask whether you are intending to make a statement to the House on this important issue.

I am also writing to urge you to establish an independent public inquiry into the operation of blacklisting in this country given that over 3200 workers were found to have been blacklisted and given the severe effect this has had on their lives.

I would welcome a prompt response to these questions.

Yours,

John McDonnell MP

Meanwhile Dave Smith from the Blacklist Support Group was on Radio 2's Jeremy Vine show yesterday lunchtime talking about the issue (fast forward to 36mins after Kate Bush).

For the sake of 'balance' I guess (or just because it would be boring to simply talk about an injustice, you need some controversy or because union members can't be allowed to talk unchallenged) they had an alternative point of view from Alex Singleton. He is a blogger with the Daily Mail having previously worked for the Telegraph. So when he said: "I think a blacklist is entirely sensible and quite reasonable." it wasn't that unexpected. It doesn't matter whether the implications have been thought through or the contradictions addressed. It's just enough to spout something controversial and get the phone lines buzzing. I don't blame Alex - he's doing what he's paid to do (and probably even believes). But the programme makers need to try a little harder.

Anyway: Alex appears to run two PR companies. One is Alex Singleton Associates and the other us Incorporated PR. I am sure that no firms implicated in the blacklisting scandal have been clients. He's very keen on freedom and liberty is Alex considering the number of organisations he is associated with that have the words freedom or liberty in their name or reason for existing. He jointly wrote a report for the Adam Smith Institute on Labour's first 500 days in office and its record on individual freedom. Seems slightly contradictory that the report should bemoan the fact that teenagers can't buy cigarettes and fox hunting bans but when people want to express their views on trade unions or health and safety they should be put on a blacklist. Perhaps personal freedom only extends so far as it doesn't impact on a corporation.

Ikea accused of using French police files to vet employees

Update March 15: The Guardian reports on the story. Better late than never I guess.

Update: French trade union files complaint (h/t @cheshire_puss).

Allegations a multinational used state security files to vet employees have emerged in France.

According to a Swedish news site, the furniture giant Ikea paid 80 euros a time to check the files which included details on political affiliations. Ikea said in a statement that it was investigating the claims.

The story can be read at The Local.

The allegations surfaced as a result of emails obtained by  the French satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaîné and investigative website Rue89. They say that the company used French security companies to gain access to documents held in the Système de traitement des infractions constatées (STIC). This centralized records system groups together data from police investigations, including both suspected criminals and their victims.

Accessing the documents without authorization is an offence.

When asked by myself about the vetting of potential staff in the UK, the IKEA UK Deputy Country Manager said in a statement (March 1): “The IKEA ethical business standards are crystal clear. We do business in an honest and straightforward way - no matter where we operate. Respect for one’s privacy is of highest importance for the IKEA Group and we strongly disapprove of any practices that would infringe on these values.

“In IKEA UK we only perform checks on predetermined co-worker and manager positions prior to their employment.  These are done with the individual’s permission and include standard Criminal Record Bureau, County Court Judgement and reference checks, all undertaken by a contracted specialist supplier in this field.  We do not use companies or individuals to gather any other information on potential or current employees and we would never ask for or keep hold of information on personal beliefs or political views.”

This is the entry for Ikea in the Information Commissioner's database of data controllers. Actually it does say it records employees "religious or other beliefs of a similar nature" but one could understand why that might be necessary for managing staff or knowing what the make-up of the company is.

(Cartoon from Insert Clever Title)

Blacklisting firm opened file on oil industry academic

A secret blacklisting file opened on an academic who researched health and safety following the Piper Alpha oil rig disaster alleges the offshore oil industry threatened to cut funding to his university if he “continued to cause problems”.

Prof Charles Woolfson published extensively on safety regimes in the North Sea while he was industrial relations professor at the University of Glasgow and wrote a well-regarded book Paying The Piper.

However, having his work reported in the media led to him having a file opened on him in 1995 by The Consulting Association. An extract is pictured below.

The Association was funded by the construction industry to maintain blacklists on thousands of union activists to prevent them being employed. It was shut down by the Information Commissioner’s Office in 2009 and its records seized. Ian Kerr, the man paid to run the Association, was later fined £5,000 for breaching data protection laws.

“This is frankly an unwelcome surprise,” Prof Woolfson told me. “There is a clear intent to do me professional harm. This organisation and the industry obviously felt sufficiently threatened by critical academic research on safety to put me on a blacklist.

“I am aware of the activities of Ian Kerr and the next time I am in the UK I would like to meet him.

 “When I started the work I said to the university that there might be some reaction from the industry. I was told that as long as I could substantiate my work they would support me whatever the circumstances. I think the university deserves credit for that.

“It is good to know that the tradition of critical scholarship cannot be influenced by threats from powerful corporate interests.”

There is no evidence that any funding was withdrawn and Prof Woolfson says he is not aware of having suffered any detriment as a result of the file. He is now professor of Labour Relations at Linkoping University in Sweden and continues to publish widely on safety in the oil industry.

The file was opened in 1995 following media reports of what the file describes as Prof Woolfson’s “contradictory findings on Health and Safety after Piper Alpha tragedy”. His research showed that safety lessons following the oil rig explosion in 1988 which killed 167 people were not being followed. One of his book’s on the topic is now considered a set text for Shell executives.

Six months later the file reports: “Funding from oil industry to Glasgow University may be cut if aboves activities continue, or there may be a reduction in his activities to prevent this happening.”

There is no further evidence beyond the file that the industry made the threat or tried to make good on it. The rest of Woolfson’s five-page contains numerous clippings from the media.

A spokesperson for the University of Glasgow said: “The University of Glasgow is founded on the premise of academic freedom and we would never compromise on that. As an institution we would never seek to influence the work or research of colleagues on the basis of any real, perceived or implied threat from an external body or agency.”

Jake Molloy from OILC, the union representing off-shore oil workers, told me: “It is quite shocking and appalling, no question about it. But it is appalling that anybody should be targeted because they are talking about health and safety.

“I am aware of an incident where a journalist from a global journal became aware that a major oil company had contacted his employer and they were considering pulling all their adverts because of what he was writing.

“This is the nature of the business you are dealing with. The oil and gas industry is renowned for putting pressure on anybody who challenges or questions them.”

The industry operated what was effectively a blacklist called Not Required Back (NRB) whereby a contractor could end ensure that troublesome personnel were not re-employed on off-shore platforms. Following years of pressure that policy was changed in 2009 and is now much more transparent, though Molloy says there are still issues over the treatment of union members.

There is a reference in Woolfson's file to another Consulting Association file on OILC, but that was not among documents seized by the ICO when it carried out its raid in 2009.

A spy reports...

Below is an extract from evidence presented at the employment tribunal of blacklisted engineer Dave Smith. It is part of the files from the Consulting Association (CA) which kept details on thousands of workers which were used by the construction industry.

The CA files released so far have generally consisted of reports from companies of individual employment histories along with personal comments and newspaper clippings. This is unusual in being an original report from what appears to be someone who deliberately infiltrated a union meeting.