Stockport Labour Group has called for construction firms found to have used illegal ‘blacklisting’ to be banned from winning Council contracts in future.
In 2009 the Information Commissioner’s Officer discovered that 44 construction firms had been using an illegal blacklist which prevented thousands of workers from being employed. 3,213 workers had been blacklisted for reporting health and safety concerns or for being members of trade unions and had been labelled as ‘troublemakers’ or ‘militants’.
The GMB trade union has found that 183 workers were blacklisted in Greater Manchester.
At the last Full Council Meeting of Stockport Council (14th Feb 2013), Labour councillor Laura Booth (Offerton) asked the Leader of the Council if she would support moves taken by other Councils to ban construction firms involved in blacklisting from winning Council contracts. The Leader of the Council asked for a list of the companies involved to be sent to her.
Cllr Laura Booth said: “Blacklisting is a hateful practice that has blighted the lives of thousands of workers. Skilled workers who simply raised concerns about site safety or were members of trade unions have been singled out by powerful construction bosses and denied the chance to work.
“One of the firms named by the Information Commissioner’s Office as having used blacklisting was Carillion who built the new Council office Fred Perry House. It is appalling to think that a firm which persecuted workers was able to make a profit from public money.
“I have now sent a list of the 44 firms involved in blacklisting to the Leader of the Council and I hope that the Council will never award a contract to one of these firms again.”
The 44 construction companies named by the Information Commissioner’s Office were (The use of brackets indicates where companies have undergone a change of name or where subsidiaries have been absorbed by parent companies. Ex members may no longer exist or no longer avail themselves of the service):
- Amec Building Ltd
- Amec Construction Ltd
- Amec Facilities Ltd
- Amec Ind Div
- Amec Process & Energy Ltd
- Amey Construction – Ex Member
- B Sunley & Sons – Ex Member
- Balfour Beatty
- Balfour Kilpatrick
- Ballast (Wiltshire) PLc – Ex Member
- Bam Construction (HBC Construction)
- Bam Nuttall (Edmund Nutall Ltd)
- C B & I
- Cleveland Bridge UK Ltd
- Costain UK Ltd
- Crown House Technologies
- (Carillion/Tarmac Const)
- Diamond M & E Services
- Dudley Bower & Co Ltd – Ex Member
- Emcor (Drake & Scull) – ‘Ex Ref’
- Emcor Rail
- G Wimpey Ltd – Ex Member
- Haden Young
- Kier Ltd
- John Mowlem Ltd -Ex Member
- Laing O’Rourk (Laing Ltd)
- Lovell Construction (UK) Ltd – Ex Member
- Miller Construction Limited – Ex Member
- Morgan Ashurst
- Morgan Est
- Morrison Construction Group – Ex Member
- N G Bailey
- Shepherd Engineering Services
- Sias Building Services
- Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd
- Skanska (Kaverna/Trafalgar
- House Plc)
- SPIE (Matthew Hall) – Ex Member
- Taylor Woodrow Construction Ltd – Ex Member
- Turriff Construction Ltd –Ex Member
- Tysons Contractors – Ex Member
- Walter Llewellyn & Sons Ltd – Ex Member
- Whessoe Oil & Gas
- Willmott Dixon – Ex Member
- Vinci PLC (Norwest Holst Group)