Seven blacklisted in Southend-on-Sea
February 7, 2013 1 Comment
The General, Municipal, Boilermakers and Allied Trade Union has issued a press release regarding the blacklisting of workers in the Eastern Region.
This affects seven people in Southend-on-Sea (although the 32 in ‘Essex’ could include more from the borough).
The blacklist is for construction workers who have, at some point, taken an interest in trade unionism or health and safety – there is no suggestion that any have broken the law. To be blacklisted for doing perfectly legal activities smacks of the sort of thing one expects in a dictatorship, not in a modern and mature democracy.
I presume the GMB number is number of affected members as opposed to the possible total number of people including non union members who are black listed. I sincerely hope that
1) The companies a are punished
2) The affected people are compensated not only if they can prove they missed out (which I fear is what will happen) but also an ex gratia amount for merely being on the register.
With any luck we can find a way for the directors of these companies or those that built and used this database face stiff penalties preferably under criminal law as well.