Employment Law Advocates

There was disturbing news in the press last week about blacklisting in the construction industry. A small company called the Consulting Association compiled a database of workers who had been involved in union activities, had brought tribunal claims or who had blown the whistle about poor health and safety practices. Worryingly, most of the employees concerned are likely to have no remedy in employment law. Those who were discriminated against may be able to claim victimisation but they will mostly be way out of time while those rejected for having brought unfair dismissal claims will have no case at all, which strikes me as being a serious lacuna in the law.

Section 3 of the Employment Relations Act 1999 states, ‘The Secretary of State may make regulations prohibiting the compilation of lists’ and it further gives him the right to give jurisdiction to the Employment Tribunal and to introduce new criminal offences. However, no such regulations have ever been made, apparently for the reason that the government did not believe that blacklists were being maintained any longer. Hopefully, they will now change their view and bring this much needed legislation into force. On the other hand, the Consulting Association will not get away scot-free. Its owner, Ian Kerr, is likely to be prosecuted by the Information Commissioner for breaches of the Data Protection Act. Purchasers of the data, for £3000 a year each, may be prosecuted as well.