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Secret police were allegedly involved in the blacklisting scandal.
"Subj: Blacklister tells MPs he had meetings with
government ministers and police
Jack Winder -
Director of Caprim Ltd from 1994-
Winder told MPs he was officially invited to meet Jim Prior MP -
Main Caprim sectors: Agro-
Caprim clients included: Monsanto, Glaxo-
Morgan Winder denied that Caprim were a blacklisting organisation because they kept files on organisations such as campaign against the
Arms Trade or Greenpeace -
Winder told MPs that the League had good relations with certain trade union leaders who felt they had problems with the far left.
Leif Mills, ex-
Dennis Mills, from the midlands region of TGWU Kate Losinska, who was head of the Civil and Public Services Association
Winder admitted having contacts and holding regular meetings with Metropolitan Police, West Midlands and Scottish Special Branch at
least up to 1994. Some meetings took place in a pub next to Scotland Yard.
Anti-
Sir Henry Saxon Tate (of the Tate & Lyle sugar dynasty), previous Chair of the Economic League was a Director of Caprim.
Co-
Jack Bramwell -
Web link to evidence:
http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=12511>
*Blacklist Support Group*
video: blog"www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRB9DjmhBHg>blog: www.hazards.org/blacklistblog
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/blacklistSG/"
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Radio 4 programme re the blacklisting scandal.
"From: blacklistsg@gmail.com
Date: 09/02/2013 11:27
To:
<undisclosed-
Subj: Blacklisting News Feb 2013
1.
Great coverage on BBC Wales
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01qb70j/The_Wales_Report_03_02_2013/
2. Radio 4 documentary *The Report* is giving an entire programme
over to blacklisting at 8pm Thursday 14th Feb
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01qkmps>
3. Civil Disobedience at Crossrail
A flashmob closed down Oxford Street for over 90 mins during
rush-
protest at the ongoing victimisation of UNITE rep Frank Morris and other union members sacked from the Crossrail project because of the
blacklist. Many thanks to the Widnes drivers and Howden Joinery workers and other supporters who joined the protest.
http://leftunity.org/smash-
4. Welsh Assembly to vote on barring blacklisting firms from all publiclyfunded projects in Wales. This follows on from other local authorities
around the country passing similar motions.
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/129245>
5.
Blacklisting inquiry has been called for in the Scottish Parliament by Neil Findlay MSP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en&client=mv-
6. Dundee March & protest against Blacklisting 10:30am Sat 9th March Albert Square, Dundee
http://www.facebook.com/events/328049420629310/>
7. next up to give evidence at the Select Committee investigation into blacklisting Stan Hardy -
2:30pm Tuesday 12th February,
Committee Room 6
Houses of Parliament
Westminster
http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-
Keep the faith
*Blacklist Support Group*
video: blog"www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRB9DjmhBHg>blog: www.hazards.org/blacklistblog
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/blacklistSG/"
The Labour Government was aware of the blacklisting scandal but apparently did nothing about it.
"Subj: Press Release:
Carillion face ground breaking human rights legal challenge on
blacklisting
Troubled construction giant Carillion face more allegations of human rightsviolations as part of the construction industry blacklisting scandal in a court case to be heard at the Employment Appeal Tribunal in Blackfriars on12:00 Tuesday 26th Feb.
If successful, the case would significantly extend the influence of the Human Rights Act remit into the area of employment
law.
*Case Reference: D.R. Smith v (1) Carillion, (2) Carillion (JM) Ltd. (3) Schal International Managemen Ltd. *
The human rights claims are made by engineer Dave Smith who was repeatedly dismissed and refused work once his name appeared on the illegal Consulting Association blacklist after he had raised concerns about asbestos, poor toilet facilities and contaminated waste on London and Essex building sites controlled by companies in the Carilion Group. Mr Smith is one ofthousands
of blacklisted construction workers who discovered he was on the construction blacklist for being a member of a trade union. Mr. Smith's blacklist file runs to 36 pages and includes his name, address, date of birth, NI number, car registration full works
history, photographs and copies of his safety reps accreditation with the Schal office stamp on it.
Carillion are to be grilled by MPs when they are called to give evidence to the Scottish Affairs Select
Committee investigation into blacklisting in employment. The Select Committee has already heard evidence that *Frank Duggan* (ex-
Mr Smith's file is only one of hundreds of files with entries referring to firms in the Carillion group including John Mowlem now trading as Carillion (JM) Ltd and Carillion's in house employment agency Sky Blue. The GMB union estimate that from October 1999 to April 2004 that Carillion checked at least 14,724 names, making the firm one of the bigger users of the blacklist at the time. Invoices and salesbook records show that Carillion paid £37,814.72 to the Consulting Association between 1999 and 2006 and its managers were still attending at meetings as late as
2008.
Mr. Smith's test-
him because he was a trade union safety representative on their building sites but he still lostthe case on the legal technicality
that he was not directly employed by the companies but via an employment agency.
John Hendy QC will argue that case should be allowed to continue to the next stage of the legal process because the original ET decision is in violation of the Human Rights Act and the European Convention on Human Rights -
and Article 11 (the right to freedom of association). Human rights are supposed to apply to "everyone" but in UK employment law, apparently they only apply to direct employees. Mr Smith's legal team is arguing that existing UK law should be interpreted
in such a way as to uphold human rights and therefore the tribunal should extend the legal protection to all "workers" and not just direct employees.
Dave Smith said: *"I am taking this claim to highlight a major human rights scandal. * *Honest trade union members were blacklisted for nothing more than raising concerns about safety issues or unpaid wages.**It is not illegal to be a member of a trade union -
*Carillion are a multi-
this secret conspiracy that MPs have described as a "National Scandal"
*Blacklisted workers will continue to expose Carillion and the other blacklisting firms until we get the justice we deserve."*
Carillion is already facing legal claims for corruption, bullying and racism by nearly 100 Swindon Hospital workers represented by the GMB union. It is believed that Carillion has lost publicly funded contracts with local authorities because of the fall-
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Information Commissioner’s Office
1 March 2013
PROTECT
1 March 2013
Case Reference Number RCC0484284
Dear Mr Dransfield
Further to our Internal Review acknowledgement of 5 February 2013 we are
now able to provide a response.
Your review request stated:
“I am writing to request an internal review of Information
Commissioner?s Office's handling of my FOI request 'Consulting
Association Mr Ian Kerr'.
THE INFORMATION YOU RELEASED IS AN UNDATED SEARCH WARRANT AND IT DOES NOT
MEET MY EXPECTATIONS TO MY FOIA REQUEST, HENCE, PLEASE REVIEW YOUR
DECISION.”
The response to your original request stated that we do not hold any
correspondence falling within the scope of your request.
Having conducted further searches, I have located correspondence
falling into the scope of your request.
I will ask the original request handler to, as a matter of priority,
consider this information for disclosure and provide you with a further
response within 5 working days – so by next Friday 8 March.
We provided a copy of a search warrant as a matter of advice and
assistance. You have referenced the fact that the search warrant is
undated; the copy provided to you is a copy of the warrant that we hold
and as such we are unable to amend it. As it might be of interest, we can
say that the raid took place on 23 February 2009.
Consequently, I find a breach of section 1(1) (a) FOIA in that we failed
to communicate to you that we held information in the scope of your
request.
I hope that you find this helpful. However if you are dissatisfied with
the outcome of this review you may make a section 50 complaint to the
ICO.
How to complain
Information on how to complain is available on the ICO website at:
[1]lt http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/freedom...
By post: If your supporting evidence is in hard copy, you can fill in the
Word version of our complaint form, print it out and post it to us with
your supporting evidence. A printable Freedom of Information Act
complaints form is available from the ICO website. Please send to:
First Contact Team
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF
By email: If all your supporting evidence is available electronically, you
can fill in our online complaint form. Important: information included in
the form, and any supporting evidence will be sent to us by email.
Yours sincerely
Helen Ward
Information Governance Manager
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"Subj: Blacklist Support Group name and shame the blacklisters
Below is the full list of the company Directors that chaired the Consulting Association
1993-
1997-
2000-
2002-
2004-
2006-
Below is the full list of Human Resources & Industrial Relations Directorswho were the "main contact" between the construction companies and the Consulting Association and were therefore the most active in blacklisting trade
union members and workers who raised health & safety concerns.
Sir Robert McAlpine: David Cochrane
Costain: Trevor Spice, Geoff Hughes, Ken Ward
Carillion: Liz Keates
Tarmac: Liz Keates
Crown House: Liz Keates, Roy Hay, Dianne Hughes
Skanska: Stephen Quart, John Dickinson
Balfour Kilpatrick: Gerry Harvey, Elaine Galagher, Paul Raby, Arma Johnston
Balfour Beatty Major Projects: Trevor Watchman
Balfour Beatty Construction: Ann Cowrie
Balfour Beatty Scottish & Southern: Vince James
Haden Young: Carolyn Williams
Morgan Estate: Steve McGuire
Amec: Arnold Nestler
Balfour Beatty Infrastructure Services: John Dangerfield
HBG Construction: Richard Bull, Paul McCreath
Kier: Danny O’Sullivan, Kathy Aimansoor:
Vinci: Alan Audley Nuttall: Bridget May
Bam Nuttall: Pat Swift
Cleveland Bridge UK: Lynne Day
Shepherd Engineering Services: Lisa Stevenson
NG Bailey: Murray Reid
CB & I: Ron Barron
Encor: Iain Coates
SIAS Building Services: John
Stoddart
Laing O’Rourke: Liz Keates, Sylvia Smith, Lisa O’Mahoney
Rosser & Russell: Harry Pooley
Mowlem: Alf Lucas
Whessoe: Roy Knight
Blacklist Support Group"
Email sent 17th March 2013 at 06.32
Dear Mr Bradshaw
I wish to make a formal complaint to my MP and I ask him to make a formal complaint to Network Rail for allowing Balfour Beatty(BB) to Tender for their works after the disgraceful conduct by BB regarding the Blacklisting of British Construction workers over the last 20 years.
I would also like to point out to my MP that I hold serious reservations for NR plans to LOWER rail tracks under BRIDGES as shown in the following News Article. This is tailormade for a catastrophe and tailormade for design change fraud, which, Balfour Beatty are experts in.
As you are aware BB are the masterminds of the blacklisting debacle, which has seen several thousand construction workers deprived of a crust of bread because of the BB greed and dishonesty.
I call upon my MP to lobby NR to cancel any BB Projects.
With thanks
Alan M Dransfield
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"Balfour Beatty Rail wins Crossrail track upgrade
Aaron Morby | Mon 21st January | 15:06
inShare8
Network Rail has awarded Balfour Beatty Rail the job to upgrade a 12-
The staged by Shopping Sidekick Plugin" href="http://www.constructionenquirer.com/2013/01/21/balfour-
The Crossrail ‘west outer’ track infrastructure contract includes detailed design, installation and commissioning of new upgraded tracks.
Balfour Beatty will also lower tracks under several bridges to enable clearance for the overhead lines for the new electric trains and carry out minor overhead line equipment and electrical upgrade works.
Jorge Mendonça, Network Rail’s Crossrail Programme Director said: “Network Rail is undertaking a major upgrade of the existing rail network for Crossrail, including a significant programme of track renewals as well as station improvements.”
Network Rail is responsible for the design, development and delivery of the parts of Crossrail that are on the existing network.
The work includes upgrading 43 miles of track as well as improving 27 stations from Maidenhead in the west to Abbey Wood and Shenfield in the east."
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Email sent 17th March 2013 at 07.38
Mr Andrew Hayward. Balfour Beatty Ethics Manager
Dear Sir
I was appalled to learn that the Balfour Beatty (BB) CEO has endorsed the illegal Blacklisting Activity carried out by the BB Group. In particular, I refer to the recent statement by Mike Peasland CEO to the Scottish Select Committee.
What sort of message has this sent out to the general public and to the management of BB in general. My understanding of Mr Peasland statement is that he considers that BB are above the law and blacklisting is condoned by the BB CEO and no doubt by the majority of BB management nationwide.
I appreciate Mr Peasland is your direct line manager, hence, I doubt if you have the backbone to chastise the CEO. However, I believe Mr Peasland's recent comments cannot be allowed to go on public record and I call upon the BB Ethic Managers to ensure the appropriate actions are taken. In my view, the BB CEO should be sacked with immediate effect and a corrective statement issued.
I do not believe the BB Board of Directors will approve or condone Mr Peasland's actions and statement ref blacklisting.
With thanks
Yours sincerely
Alan M Dransfield
NB Ben Bradshaw
..........I call upon my MP to elevate this matter to the Metropolitan Police owing to the gravity. No doubt the BB CEO condones H&S Violations as well as blacklisting!
NB Devon Police Commissioner
I bring this matter to your attention because construction blacklisting has been carried out, encouraged and condoned by BB in Devon.
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"Balfour Beatty checked workers to avoid 'civil disobedience' on site
13 March, 2013 | By Mark Smulian
Balfour Beatty made heavy use of blacklisting firm The Consulting Association because it feared “civil disobedience” on its sites, construction services UK chief executive officer Mike Peasland has told MPs.
Mr Peasland (pictured) was speaking yesterday at the Scottish Affairs committee’s continuing inquiry into blacklisting in the industry.
This followed a raid by the Information Commissioner’s Office on The Consulting Association in 2009, a body financed by the industry to carry records on workers judged to be potentially disruptive.
Mr Peasland said all six of Balfour Beatty’s UK operating companies at the time used TCA as a matter of course, and would check every applicant for direct by Shopping Sidekick Plugin" href="http://www.cnplus.co.uk/news/construction-
He said that he became aware of the company using the TCA in 1989, and “at the time we were suffering huge amounts of disruption from unlawful acts on our sites, which led to major issues of delays to customers and we felt [using the TCA] was a way to help prevent that”.
Sites suffered, Mr Peasland said, from “unofficial action by workers and things like harassment and bullying”.
Examples were “people being coerced into going off site, coerced into working slower and also other acts like sabotage,” he said. “I could not say for certain it was organised but it did occur. Here was a programme of disruption and we believed it was civil disobedience.”
Mr Peasland said this sort of disruption was then widespread in the industry, though he did not know whether it was organised, and that using the TCA helped Balfour Beatty to avoid employing people with a record of such involvement.
Disruption had been particularly intense around the time of the millennium when many projects had to be completed in time for the new century and workers could demand higher pay if they threatened to cause delays, he said.
“In my experience around the millennium the ability to disrupt and not complete on time was a big issue for companies, creating additional payments as an issue, so people were holding things up so they were benefitting,” he said.
“Disruption costs us and costs clients and clients do not want disruption. This was industry-
Mr Peasland said he had been satisfied with the TCA’s services and that using it had left Balfour Beatty less vulnerable to disruption than competitors who did not.
He said the company did not discriminate against anyone who raised “genuine legitimate health and safety grievances”, but later added in lengthy exchanges with Conservative MP Simon Reevell that it would be left to site managers to decide what constituted ‘genuine’, and that those deemed to raise ‘ungenuine’ concerns could have faced blacklisting.
The committee’s Labour chair Ian Donaldson said evidence from the TCA’s director, the late Ian Kerr, had shown that Balfour Beatty was “hardnosed” in its use of the TCA.
Mr Peasland admitted Balfour Beatty had been a heavy user of the TCA. “I didn’t understand what he meant by hardnosed,” he said. “If he meant we checked every person on [a] project I agree we were a heavy user.”
Mr Donaldson said Mr Kerr had said some companies took a more lenient position but that Balfour Beatty would exclude anyone whose name appeared on TCA records for any reason.
Opening up a potential source of embarrassment for Balfour Beatty, Mr Donaldson demanded to see its records relating to TCA.
“I have been allowed by the ICO to see its files on a confidential basis and I want to see yours under the same conditions and clarify what it is you have got,” he said.
“It is clear to me that you, unlike other firms, seem to still be retaining files on employees.”
He added that the company appeared to regret getting caught by the ICO rather than regret using the TCA.
But Mr Peasland said things had now changed. “We do regret the use of TCA. It should not have happened and we do apologise to all workers and families affected,” he said. “We do not do any checks of that sort now.”"
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Email sent 17/03/2013 at 08.17
Attn the Devon Police Commissioner.Tony Hogg.
Dear Sir
Further to my earlier email ref the subject title please find the following news article from the Construction News, which, I believe is sufficient grounds for you to arrest the Balfour Beatty South West Director Mr Andy Macadam for Illegal Blacklisting activity in Devon between 2000 and now.
For your information,action and files
with thanks
Yours sincerely
Alan M Dransfield
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Email sent 17/03/2013 at 21.15
Dear Mr Bradshaw
Are you aware that there are 20 construction workers from Devon are included in the Construction Blacklist? This has happened under your watch Mr Bradshaw and you have not lifted a finger.
Yours in disgust
Alan M Dransfield
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