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16
December 2010
Collective union rights
to take industrial action are seriously undermined by victimisation
of union reps and activists. So it was a significant victory
when, on 10 November, at Ashford Employment Tribunal, an employment
Judge ruled that Unite member, Mr Phil Willis had been unlawfully
refused employment by CB&I because he is a member of a
trade union. Phil is a prominent activist and was blacklisted
because of this. He was awarded £18,375 in damages.
On 6 March 2009, the Information
Commissioner's Office (ICO) raided the office of an organisation
known as The Consulting Association (TCA) and found a list
of over 3000 workers in the construction industry. It was
discovered that a practice was operating whereby up to 40
firms in the industry were buying information on workers and
blacklisting trade unionists.
Phil Willis is a steel
erector. He has been a member of Unite since 1968. In 2007
CB&I were involved in a major engineering and construction
project at the Isle of Grain. Mr Willis submitted an application
to CB&I for work as a steel erector on the Isle of Grain
project. Although his application was acknowledged, he was
not contacted again. CB&I were subscribers to TCA and
used the services of TCA extensively. Mr Willis obtained a
copy of his intelligence file held by TCA which contained
information about his trade union activity.
Following the raid by
the ICO in March 2009, the government announced it would –
finally - introduce legislation to outlaw blacklisting which
became law in April 2010. Unions had been arguing for years
that blacklisting of workers was taking place, but the government
said there wasn’t enough proof.
Although Mr Willis brought
his claim under different legislation (section 137 of the
Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992)
as there was no specific legislation outlawing blacklisting
at the time of his claim.
Tom Hardacre, Unite's
national officer for construction said: "It is the first
successful case against a major construction company but it
will not be the last. The union is currently providing legal
support to a number of workers who believe they have been
blacklisted.
Too many construction
workers have suffered victimisation at the hands of unscrupulous
employers. Unite intends to use the full force of the law
to hold firms to account for systematically ruining people's
livelihoods just because a few brave men were prepared to
stand up for the rights of their fellow work colleagues.”
More Information:
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