今日看料 union Ucatt, giving evidence yesterday to the committee鈥檚 investigation into blacklisting in employment, named Sir Robert McAlpine and Skanska as two contractors who blacklisted workers on high profile public sector contracts.
Ucatt general secretary Steve Murphy and national political officer Jim Kennedy told MPs that during the Consulting Association鈥檚 final year of operating a blacklist of construction workers, Skanska paid for 拢28,122.60 of checks and Sir Robert McAlpine 拢26,842.20.
Mr Kennedy said:聽 鈥淚n an internal review, Skanska admitted that they were both using the Consulting Association to vet workers and were supplying information to the list, yet they escaped without penalty or sanction.鈥�
Mr Murphy drew the committee鈥檚 attention to the spike in Sir Robert McAlpine鈥檚 blacklisting activity in the third quarter of 2008. From July to September 2008 McAlpine spent 拢12,839.20 making 5,836 blacklist checks, an average of 63 per day.
Mr Murphy showed how this peak corresponded with McAlpine鈥檚 building of the Olympic Stadium which began construction in late May 2008. McAlpine was also part of the consortium involved in the building of the M74 in Glasgow, which began work at the same time.
Mr Murphy said: 鈥淪adly, blacklisting is a live and current issue but it is difficult to provide hard evidence for such a clandestine activity.聽 If we don鈥檛 legislate to outlaw blacklisting now, we will be having the same discussion again in the future when further blacklisting activities come to light.聽 In the meantime, good workers are unable to secure employment because of their involvement in legitimate trade union duties.鈥�
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