Angry MPs urge Government to act now to end blacklist shame

Tribune this week carries my story on the latest debate in Parliament over the blacklisting of trade union workers - an issue reported on by  The Guardian and exposed through an ICO investigation.

LABOUR MPs angry at the construction industry blacklist designed to prevent union activists from getting work on building sites in Britain have condemned the Government response and suggested firms might end up on a blacklist of their own.

The idea is that companies which subscribed to the controversial blacklist – supplied by consultant Ian Kerr to more than 40 firms including Balfour Beatty, Costain and McAlpine – should not get public sector work.

Michael Clapham, MP for Barnsley West & Penistone, said: “The fact that the public sector was the client in just over 31 per cent of construction output in 2006, making it the industry’s largest customer, suggests that the government, as a major client, has some responsibility to use the powerful lever that exists to ensure that companies who use blacklists are not engaged on projects.”

You can read the rest here.

There is an excellent background piece on the ICO investigation in Building magazine which I've only just picked up on.

This debate in the House of Lords yesterday (Thursday April 2) touches on the issue.