Council leader bids to stop company black listing
Construction companies bidding for Council contracts will have to prove they do not subscribe to unlawful industry blacklists, says Council leader Tudor Evans.
Council tender documents should be changed to ensure that building firms confirm they do not use the blacklists to vet recruits in order to keep out trade union and health and safety activists.
He is also urging partners in Plymouth to take similar measures with their suppliers.
Secret files on more than 3,200 workers in the building industry were uncovered in an investigation by the Information Commissioner in 2009 into the practices of an organisation called Consulting Association, which compiled the lists so that companies could check them – for a fee – to stop potential ‘trouble makers’, which in some cases amounted to being a member of a trade union or raising health and safety issues.
Councillor Evans said: “Given the amount of construction going on in the city, it is particularly worrying to learn that there is at least one person in Plymouth on this list.
“There could be more. We want no part of this shameful practice and we want to make sure that any companies we use have not been party to this sort of behaviour. People working on building sites have the right to raise legitimate health and safety concerns or exercise their human right to belong to a trade union.”
The GMB union launched a campaign to find out who was on the blacklist and had inexplicably not found work on construction sites. So far, 200 people have been identified – and of that 200, 14 were in Devon.
The union is now urging councils not to award work to companies that have operated the blacklist until they compensate those they damaged.
In a motion on notice that is going to Full Council on 22 April, Councillor Evans is calling for the Council to also formally:
- Deplore the use of unlawful blacklisting
- Support the GMB campaign
- Agree to amend tender documentation for construction projects to request bidders confirm they do not subscribe to blacklists; to exclude tenders which do and will terminate contacts where contractors are subsequently found to be using them
- Encourage partners to take similar measures.
