LRD guides and handbook March 2020

Monitoring and surveillance at work - a practical guide for trade union reps

Chapter 1

Surveillance of trade unionists and blacklisting

[ch 1: pages 15-16]

Surveillance of workers goes beyond employers monitoring how workers are performing in their jobs and extends to monitoring of trade union activities. A number of reps in the LRD surveys have reported cases of employers monitoring union reps’ emails, or suspicions that this is the case. Surveillance of trade union activity has also taken place on an industry-wide scale and with the collusion of the state, with the scandal of trade union blacklisting, especially in the construction sector (See Chapter 11).


There is more detailed information about the anti-blacklisting campaign available from the blog maintained by the Blacklist Support Group (BSG). Anyone who thinks they may be on a blacklist can contact the BSG for advice and support. Their blog and contact details can be found at: www.hazards.org/blacklistblog.