Commissioner's Office seize construction blacklist - report

Mar 6 2009 by Anna Blackaby, Birmingham Post

Names of more than 3,000 construction workers blacklisted for trade union activity are reported to have been seized from an office in the Midlands.

Officials from the Information Commissioner’s Office, the authority set up to protect personal information, are understood to have raided offices of a Worcestershire-based consultant on Monday, seizing a list containing 3,200 names and national insurance numbers of construction workers.

Forty invoices were also reported to have been found from major construction firms who had paid consultant, Ian Kerr, to check potential employees said to be involved in trade union disputes and employment tribunals. The Information Commissioner’s Office is set to make a statement today on the raids.

Steve Acheson, a Unite branch official and electrician who believes he had been blacklisted for involvement in an employment tribunal in 2002, said: “I just hope for the thousands of lads that are on the list that the doors are open for them now. I have always had a sense of fair play and have been on both sides of the job, working as a supervisor as well. But I believe the only form of discrimination around in this country is against trade unions.”