Court victory for blacklisted workers but fight goes on


The Blacklist Support Group (BSG) and trade unions waged a long battle for justice for blacklisted workers and in May 2016 won a multimillion pound compensation settlement just before a High Court trial was due to begin.



They brought their cases against construction companies Balfour Beatty, Carillion, Costain, Kier, Laing O’Rourke, Sir Robert McAlpine, Skanska UK and VINCI and they included claims for misuse of confidential information, breach of the Data Protection Act 1998, unlawful means conspiracy, breach of privacy and defamation. They concerned 30 years of blacklisting activities by these companies, the Economic League and the Consulting Association.



The total value of settlements for union members and blacklisted workers represented by law firm Guney, Clark and Ryan, was around £75 million for 771 claimants including legal costs on both sides estimated at £25 million.


In December 2017, the general union Unite launched new proceedings for more than 70 blacklisted construction workers against four ex-chairmen of the Consulting Association and 13 companies, alleging unlawful conspiracy, breach of privacy, defamation and data protection offences. 


In March 2018, the Metropolitan Police confirmed, as long suspected, that police officers unlawfully passed information about blacklisted workers to construction companies involved in blacklisting. In June 2018 the general GMB union referred the Metropolitan Police to the ICO after the force failed to answer a Freedom of Information (FOI) request. The union filed a request for the Metropolitan Police’s full internal investigation report, all emails relating to the report, and details of overt and covert meetings between officers and members of blacklisting organisations. The deadline passed without response, the GMB said. A number of unions, the firefighters’ union FBU, miners’ union NUM and Unite, as well as the BSG, are core participants in the ongoing public inquiry into undercover policing known as the Mittings Inquiry (see www.ucpi.org.uk). However, many campaigners walked out of the inquiry earlier this year after Mitting granted former undercover officers anonymity.