Blacklisted Irish builders suffered ‘decades of abuse’ in UK

Construction workers, hundreds of them Irish, who were blacklisted by major British building firms from the 1970s and denied work have demanded a full public inquiry into “decades of abuse”.

The demand came as the British information commissioner said he will write to 1,200 extra workers to notify them that their names were kept on a blacklist that was organised by a secretive body, the Consulting Association.

For decades, it charged building firms an annual membership fee, along with a small charge for background checks on workers on their sites – records that detailed union membership, connections, car registrations and more.

The information, some of which is known to have come from Special Branch, or the MI5 security agency, led to workers being refused work or being fired if they had already been employed.

Eight companies – including Laing O’Rourke, led by Irish businessman Ray O’Rourke – have so far offered an apology for their links to the Consulting Association and offered compensation in a bid to head off dozens of court cases.

However UCATT’s Steve Murphy said the apology was partial and the compensation derisory. The legal actions would continue until substantially better terms were offered, he said.

Hundreds of Irish workers, some of whom have since retired to Ireland, are on the blacklist, said Paul Kenny, of the GMB union. “My message to people in Ireland is get in touch with the union and check.” Speaking at a demonstration outside the House of Commons, London-born Tony O’Brien told of how his Ballybunion, Co Kerry-born father Michael and his five brothers had “died young” because of poor working conditions.

The Consulting Association had “kept 13 pages of notes” on him because he had led a work-and-safety group. “The notes said I was friends with someone when I had never known them and that I was a troublemaker. I campaigned for safe conditions, for clean toilets, for a canteen. If that makes me a troublemaker then I am a troublemaker. I see it as looking for decency.”

Frances O’Grady of the Trades Union Congress said “celebrities and politicians” got a public inquiry into phone hacking. “Now it is time for one for ordinary people.”