This is the last article you can read this month
You can read more article this month
You can read more articles this month
Sorry your limit is up for this month
Reset on:
Please help support the Morning Star by subscribing here
Construction union Ucatt warned today that new anti-blacklisting regulations in Northern Ireland are too weak to end the “disgraceful” practice.
The new rules — which come into effect on April 6 — fail to make blacklisting a specific offence, said the union, only barring the blacklisted of workers for undertaking narrowly defined “trade union activity.”
The regulations offer no protection for workers engaged in “unofficial” action such as stopping work because of safety concerns or even refusing to do voluntary overtime.
Ucatt general secretary Steve Murphy said: “Blacklisting is a repulsive secretive practice which is difficult to detect.
“Only very strong effective laws will act as a true deterrent to employers who are prepared to blacklist workers.”
Britain’s Information Commissioner raided the Worcestershire-based Consulting Association in 2009, seizing part of its blacklist with over 3,000 names — one of them in Northern Ireland and one in Ireland.
