Weaknesses in the Blacklist Regulations

In a 2009 report for UCATT, Ruined lives — blacklisting in the UK construction industry, labour law expert Professor Keith Ewing set out a number of recommendations to strengthen the Blacklist Regulations:

• they should provide a basic award of compensation for the fact of being blacklisted, with an additional compensatory award for losses suffered;

• they should provide for blacklists to be handed over to the ICO who should owe a positive duty to inform people that they are on the list and to notify them of their legal remedies;

• it should be a criminal offence to compile, maintain and access blacklists; and

• there should be a compensation scheme for people who have been blacklisted in the past. Unions have proposed that this compensation should be funded by the companies who used The Consulting Association database.