Irish construction workers in Britain to sue over blacklist

CONSTRUCTION WORKERS in Britain, including Irish electricians and engineers, are to sue a major British construction firm, alleging it used an industry “blacklist” to refuse them work.

Over 80 workers, who are being represented by London solicitors Guney, Clark and Ryan, are party to the action taken against Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd.

They say the blacklist was used to prevent them being hired, or to remove them from construction sites if they were hired before their names were checked against it.

McAlpine was one of 45 firms, including Laing and O’Rourke, that was found by the UK Information Commissioner in 2009 to have used information gathered by the Consulting Association.

Following a raid on the Consulting Association, the commissioner seized files on more than 3,000 workers that had details of trade union activity, employment history and personal lives.

The head of the Consulting Association, Ian Kerr, was fined £5,000 (€6,406) in July 2009 for running a covert operation to vet construction workers since the 1970s.

During Mr Kerr’s trial, David Clancy, head of investigations for the information commissioner, said that some of the information held could “only have come from the police or the security services”.

The workers allege McAlpine was involved in an unlawful conspiracy with other construction firms in “the wrongful gathering, storage and use of information”.

They are seeking compensation for losses and damage in the legal action, likely to come before the High Court in London in 2013.

One of the solicitors involved, Derry-born Seán Curran, said they discovered the Consulting Association had held information on “a large number of Irish workers”.

“It seems that many of these workers were forced to return to Ireland due to the difficulties they faced in obtaining employment in the UK,” he told The Irish Times.

“We are committed to assisting anyone who believes they have been placed on the database, and are happy to provide legal advice and representation where possible,” he added.

Legal papers were served a fortnight ago, said another of the solicitors involved, Liam Dunne, who comes from Athy, Co Kildare.

One engineer, 62-year-old Mick Shortall, who left Carlow aged 16, said he found it impossible to get work in Britain after he refused to cross picket lines six years ago.

Faced with no work in the UK, Mr Shortall worked in the Middle East, though he said he has had just a couple of weeks’ work since he returned from a contract in Bahrain early last year.

Another worker, Darren Grady, whose parents came from Co Westmeath, said he had been told by a reporter in the early 1990s that his name was on an industry blacklist.

“It was no surprise to us that it existed. We were only surprised later that they got caught with their pants down. House of Commons inquiries in the 1990s acknowledged it was happening,” he said.

An Irish electrician, Jim Lafferty, who has since died, was one of the leading campaigners and became one of the co-founders of the Blacklist Support Group, which is now working closely with Guney, Clark and Ryan.

Last month, the House of Commons Scottish affairs committee was told Mr Lafferty was “victimised and blacklisted” due to health and safety concerns that he raised on a London construction site.

Despite the seizure of Mr Kerr’s files three years ago, some of the workers believe information previously shared with the construction firms is still being used by some of them to blacklist workers today.

The initial claim for loss of earnings and damages is put at £17 million in some quarters, though the likelihood other workers may join and that other actions might be taken against other firms could put the claim up to £600 million.