Law at work 2020 - the trade union guide to employment law (July 2020)

Chapter 5

Union litigation over historic blacklisting

[ch 5: page 170]

Over 2016-19, several tranches of successful union-backed group litigation were fought to seek justice in relation to historic blacklisting by construction companies and their senior management. The legal claims were based on rights to protection from defamation, conspiracy and breaches of privacy. In total, firms have been forced to pay compensation of around £35 million to more than 1,200 blacklisted workers, plus their legal costs (another £20 million) and £230,000 as a contribution to a fund to be used to retrain trade unionists.


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