Taking Out The Trash

They had their day in court

At the end they got the chance to see their man in court.

Some two dozen union activists who had been blacklisted thanks to the activities of the Economic League and one of it's successors, The Consulting Association, got to confront Ian Kerr. The man who left the League to run the TCA until he was busted back in February.

Kerr arrived at court at 8.30am to ensure he got in before anyone else. He appeared from an ante-room at the last minute to stand in the dock and you could feel the ranks of those in the public gallery looking slightly unsure.

He looked his 66 years. Thin, 6ft, grey hair, grey suit, grey demenour, cocking his head to listen intently to the evidence, his eyes flicking nervously behind his glasses. His wife was in court. He had one legal representative. The prosecution had half a dozen. The public gallery was packed; but all they could see was his back flanked by some security guards. Kerr looked alone. The spotlight wasn't meant to fall on him.

For some of the guys in the gallery this man had been plaguing them for most of their working lives. The faceless corporations which employed him and financed the Consulting Association as their front were less tangible. Here was the physical embodiment of the secret blight that had been visited upon them.

If they were unsure at first that disappeared as the facts of the case were read out. There were regular heckles from the gallery. The TCA was funded, at one time or another, by some 40 construction companies - pretty much all the big names - and for 15 years it acted as private vetting agency collating gossip, newspaper clippings, union minutes, toilet graffiti and info from companies. If your name was one of more than 3,000 on their list you weren't getting in.

When the court heard that Kerr's assets amounted to £12,000 in savings, a house and state pension it was clear that there would be no punative fine. As the judge made clear at the beginning there is no case history to guide him. The £5,000 fine was met with shouts of disgust from the gallery. Kerr remained, as throughout, silent.

Meanwhile the best the ICO could do with the companies behind Kerr was to issue them a warning. The civil courts might have the last say on the matter.

There were only two ways out of court so there would be no avoiding his accusers for Kerr. After a short delay he came out the back hiding under an umbrella and got swiftly into a car and put a newspaper over his face. His was car was surrounded and suddenly the shouting took off. People really let rip. There were a few bangs on the car while the horn sounded continuously. After a few minutes a security guard stepped in and allowed the car to speed off.

This autumn the government will finally make good on its pledge to outlaw blacklisting and unions are likely to extract some compensation from the construction industry. This chapter is closing.

Shortly after Kerr left one worker told me that he had just taken a call from a colleague. He'd been given his papers from a construction job in Manchester for seemingly no reason.

My piece for Computer Weekly begins:

Construction companies which paid hundreds of thousands of pounds to a secret blacklisting operation escaped prosecution today.

A judge fined Ian Kerr, the man responsible for co-ordinating the operation, £5,000 but said while he was not the only person to blame he was "in the firing line".

The Information Commissioner's Office, which brought the case, said it was looking at issuing information notices against 17 construction companies which financed the blacklisting warning them as to their future behaviour.

There were angry scenes as Kerr left the building hiding in the back of car while some of those who had been blacklisted shouted abuse and banged on the vehicle. Many said they were disappointed both at the small fine and that the construction companies had not been prosecuted.

Carry on reading here.

Other coverage from today's sentencing:

Daily Mail

The Guardian

BBC

The Daily (Maybe)

Ten Percent

The Hidden Paw

Blacklisting consultation begins

I'm off to leafy Cheshire next week to cover the sentencing of Ian Kerr of The Consulting Association - found guilty of data protection breaches by running a secret blacklist of trade union members.
And yesterday Lord Mandelson unveiled the government's short sharp consultation which should lead to this practice being outlawed.
It is a year since my article on blacklisting prompted the investigation by the Infomation Commissioner's Office; six years since the government last consulted and found no evidence, ten years since the original employment legislation was introduced but with the blacklisting clause held in abeyance and 90 years since the Economic League was founded which turned the blacklisting of 'subversives' into an industrial-sized operation.
The main proposals are:
To make it unlawful for organisations to refuse employment or sack individuals as a result of appearing on a blacklist; to make it unlawful for employment agencies to refuse to provide a service on the basis of appearing on a blacklist; and to enable individuals or unions to pursue compensation or solicit action against those who compile, distribute or use blacklists.
There is a clause exempting journalists who obtain blacklists as part of exposing their existence.

Here are some comments on yesterday's announcement:
The Daily Mirror queries why this has taken so long
The Guardian links the story with a report calling for increased regulation to stop people being killed at work. An issue I covered for them back in 2007.
Over at Personnel Today they set up a head-to-head on the issue between Ben Willmott, senior public policy adviser at the CIPD, and Michael Gorrill, head of the Regulatory Action Division at the Information Commissioner's Office. An interesting way of covering the story.
Ian Manborde asks whether simply making laws is enough to eradicate blacklisting. This is something I believe Mandelson has acknowledged - that the process could be shipped overseas. That's not a reason for doing nothing though; that's a reason for making a start on the bits you can fix quickly.
The TUC are happy, UCATT also pleased but add:  "We are disappointed that the consultation document fails to recommend any compensation for existing victims of blacklists.”

To view the consultation visit the BERR web site.

This is what a blacklist database looks like

This is a picture of (half of ) Ian Kerr's blacklist database. If you are at all familar with how police local intelligence files are organised then apparently this set up should look pretty similar. Below is what a page from a blacklist file looks like.

Kerr pleads guilty to running blacklist database

A man has pleaded guilty to running a covert database containing personal information used to blacklist more than 3,000 construction workers...full story here at Computer Weekly and a follow-up item for the same magazine by me here.

Good background on Kerr dug up by The Guardian, including Kerr's Economic Leaguee= links.

It was a long drive up this morning to cover the court case in Macclesfield and then something of a farce as the court booked was too small for the union people, press and solicitors.

But Kerr's solicitor eventually made his client's guilty plea to breaking data protection laws and he will now go to crown court for sentencing.

Below is a picture of some of the blacklisted construction workers demonstrating outside the court.

Mr Blacklister, meet the blacklisted

Ucatt has just announced it's going to organise a demo outside Macclesfield magistrates court where Ian Kerr is due to appear next Wednesday on data protection charges having run a blacklisting operation for construction companies.
Several workers I have spoken to over the last few months who suffered because of Mr Kerr's operation are relishing the opportunity to wish him every success when he appears before the beak.

Commentating on the blacklist

While I'm trying to find outlets interested in taking copy from next week's trial of the man accused of running a trade union blacklist; a couple of papers have published comment pieces.
Tribune has a piece from Labour NEC member Ellie Reeves while the Morning Star has a piece from Ucatt general secretary Alan Ritchie. This last inspires a combative retort from supporters of Mick Dooley who is contesting Ritchie for the top job at the builders union.

Interview with a blacklisting whistleblower

Further to my post last night, here is the article by Rob Evans which provides fresh backgrond on the blacklisting scandal.

It's an interview with Alan Wainwright who has been fighting a lonely battle for several years now to expose blacklisting. What makes his story different is that he comes from the employers side. However, once he went public with his concerns, he found himself treated just like the other 'troublesome' workers and jobs were suddenly diffuclt to come by.

Alan has set up a blog which has an enormous amount of material on it detailing his story.

Both are well worth a read.

Tribune has a report on the latest developments. Both candidates for the leadership of the builders union Ucatt have found they had files held on them.

New background on blacklisting operation to be revealed tomorrow

Regular readers of this blog will know my obsession interest in the blacklisting scandal which has recently enveloped the construction industry.
I understand the Guardian is to carry tomorrow a very interesting article in the business section which adds more background to the on-going story.

Meanwhile, as of end of April, the Information Commissioner's Office hotline, where people can check if they were on Ian Kerr's files has had 1,165 calls, 242 information packs have been sent out, 124 have been returned and 122 individual files have been issued. There were more than 3,000 people on Kerr's files . . . so where are all these workers now?

Update: Construction News reports that Ucatt is considering a group civil claim against construction companies. Over at the Socialist Party and they report on a meeting at Fiddlers Ferry which several blacklisted electricians have mentioned to me is a site where they have found it difficult to get work.

Government confirms action on blacklisting

Peter Maundelson confirmed today that the government is to launch a short consultation in the summer on making blacklisting illegal with the aim of bringing in any legislation by the autumn.

Rob Evans over at the Guardian had news on this yesterday although I predicted this would happen in a piece for Tribune nearly two weeks ago which I originally posted a week before that.

The statement from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform says:

The government will launch a consultation in the early summer on revised regulations. As there has already been a full consultation in 2003, this second consultation will be shorter than the usual twelve week period. The short consultation is necessary to ensure that the regulations take full account of developments since 2003 and are up to date and fit for purpose. It will enable interested parties to give feedback on how the regulations can be refined and improved.

Ministers plan to seek Parliamentary approval for the regulations in the autumn and implement them urgently as soon as it can thereafter.

It has been welcomed by the TUC but construction union is disappointed that any action will be delayed.

Update May 12 12.39pm:

Some of the stories which have followed up on this

Letter in the Sheffield Star

Firms may yet face legal action, according to Building magazine.

Chartered Institute of Personnel Directors

New Civil Engineer

Contract Journal

Silobreaker

and some more:

Bradford Telegraph & ArgusXpert HR

Xpert HR

BBC

The Ucatt statement also raises the interesting point that the Information Commissioner wants to destroy the blacklisting files it has recovered once everybody has had a chance to get hold of their file.

Mr Ritchie (Alan Ritchie, general secretary), said: “UCATT has written to all members telling them how they can discover whether they were blacklisted but not every construction worker is a UCATT member. There is an urgent need for all construction workers and former construction workers to be able to find out if they were blacklisted. Until that process is exhausted then it is wrong for the records to be destroyed.”

I actually think it might be nice to keep them (suitably redacted) as some kind of historical resource for future researchers.

Update 16.20pm: ICO has just issued this statement:

“The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) will only keep the personal details seized from The Consulting Association for as long as necessary. However, we are naturally keen for those people on Ian Kerr’s system to have the opportunity to come forward and find out what information was held about them. We are keeping the timescales involved in this matter under review and no firm date to destroy the information has been set.”

PMQs

For the second week running blacklists were raised at Prime Minister's Questions. (And for the second week running the BBC didn't bother to report it).

This time Brown raised it himself which may have been in response to the mass lobby of Parliament which had just taken place (see previous post).

Q8.    [272709] Jim Sheridan (Paisley and Renfrewshire, North) (Lab): My right hon. Friend will be well aware of the difficulties facing employers and employees in the construction industry—problems that have been further compounded by the activities of illegal gangmasters. Will he therefore agree to meet me and other like-minded colleagues to talk through the issues involving illegal gangmasters in the construction industry?

The Prime Minister: I am happy to do so. This issue concerns me and anybody who looks at the performance of the construction industry. We are also, as I said last week, looking at the operation of illegal blacklists in the construction industry, which is an unacceptable practice.