GMB Take On Carillion

British Gas GMB Stewards On Carillion

Thursday 21^st June 2012

GMB SHOP STEWARDS CALL ON BRITISH GAS TO END CARILLION’S FACILITIES MANAGEMENT CONTRACT AT UK SITES OVER FAILURE TO DEAL WITH BLACKLISTING OF UNION ACTIVISTS

Organisations like British Gas shouldnot do business with companies that fail to deal with worst case ofillegal corporate bullying by Carillion and other companies that wehave ever seen says GMB shop stewards

British Gas GMB shop stewards are calling on British Gas not to renew a facilities management contracts with Carillion when they falls due at 92 sites across the UK over the company’s failure to apologise and compensate workers blacklisted by them.

Carillion deliver a wide range of services including cleaning, maintenance, security, catering and project management across 92 British Gas sites including sites at Leeds, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Peterborough, Plymouth, Oxford, Leicester, Southampton,  Morecambe, Heysham, Kings Lynn, Cardiff and Barry in South Wales, Barrow, Windsor and Thatcham in Berkshire, Dartford, Staines, Oldbury, Stockport, Uddingston in Lanakshire, Hattersley, Easington, South Humberbank and Killingholme  in Humberside, and Surbiton in Greater London.

British Gas GMB shop stewards have acted after GMB Report revealed that The Information Commissioner confirmed that 224 construction workers from around the UK were victims of blacklisting by Carillion and that the company has so far failed to apologise and compensate for this illegal activity.

Blacklisting by Carillion was not something isolated or rare. A GMB report estimates that in one quarter that Carillion checked 2,776 names with the blacklisting body the Consulting Association and in the period from October 1999 to April 2004 it estimates that Carillion checked at least 14,724 names.

The 224 names, on the files of the blacklisting body The Consulting Association, were released in the course of an Employment Tribunal earlier this year when Carillion was accused of blacklisting a construction worker in London.

The 224 people blacklisted by Carillion were either based in or tried to obtain work in the following areas ( with numbers in the area  listed in brackets): Barnsley (1), Birkenhead (2), Blackburn (5), Brentwood (1), Bristol (1), Caernarfon (2), Canvey Island in Essex (1), Chatham in Kent (3), Cheshire (1), Chester (1), Cleator Moor in Cumbria (1), Clwyd (5), Croydon (1), Derby (1), Dundee (1), Edinburgh (2), Ellesmere Port (3), Essex (1), Folkestone (1), Gateshead (1), Glasgow (1), Gravesend (1), Grimsby (1), Hartlepool (2), Hillingdon (1), Irvine (1), Isle of Man (10), Kent (58), Kirkby (1), Leeds (2), Liverpool (14), Livingston (3), Llandudno (1), London (39), Lowestoft (1), Manchester (13), Merseyside (5), Mold (1), North Wales (1), Oldham (1), Plymouth (1), Rayleigh (1), Romford (2), Rotherham (4), Scunthorpe (1), Sheffield (1), Sherburn in Elmet in North Yorkshire (1), Stanford-le-Hope in Essex (2), Sunderland (1), Surrey (1), Thatcham in Berkshire (1), Uxbridge (3), Warrington (1), West Wickham (1), Wirral (5) and Woodbridge in Suffolk (1). See map in note 3  for aggregated details. Some areas are listed more than once as the addresses on the blacklist are not complete.

All this information is in a GMB report entitled “BLACKLISTING - illegal corporate bullying endemic, systemic and deep-rooted in Carillion and other companies”. It is attached as a pdf at the foot of this release on the GMB website at http://www.gmb.org.uk/ . See note 1 re Carillion.

Of the 3,213 people on the blacklist, 2,863 are still unaware that their details were held by The Consulting Association.

In the judgment in the Employment Tribunal on Carillion’s blacklisting a worker in London in March 2012 (Case no 1310709/2009) the judge said “It seems to us that he has suffered a genuine injustice and we greatly regret that the law provides him with no remedy”.

Paul Kenny, GMB General Secretary said, “The GMB report pulls back the curtain of secrecy to give a glimpse how Carillion and others have illegally used their power and money to blacklist citizens and to deny them their rights to employment.

Carillon states that the blacklisting practises we have highlighted occurred many years ago and relate to businesses acquired by Carillon. See notes to Editors 2 for   Carillion response to GMB report.

No doubt they will be as shocked as we were to discover that the Consulting Association was invoicing them directly for searches right up to the date that the Information Commissioners Office raided their offices in 2009. These invoices are entirely separate from those provided to companies acquired by Carillon.

Either Carillon does not have a command of internal finances and pays invoices without understanding who they are paying, which would be astonishing. Or they are telling a barefaced lie in order to try and conceal their shameful activities.”

Until Carillion apologise and compensates victims who have fallen foul of their illegal activities calls for them to be boycotted for future contacts will grow. Organizations like British Gas should not do business with companies that fail to deal with worst case of illegal corporate bullying by Carillion and other companies that we have ever seen.”

Ends

Contact: Maria Ludkin, GMB Legal and Corporate Affairs Officer on 07956 632657 or GMB Press Office on 07921 289880 or 07974 258123.  or Justin Bowden 07710 631 351

BLACKLISTING - illegal corporate bullying endemic, systemic and deep-rooted in Carillion and other companies

Notes to Editors

1 The report shows that in a Carillion blacklisting case in Manchester Employment Tribunal in March 2012 (Case No 2405634/09) Mr Wainright an ex-Carillion HR manager said in his witness statement “In my opinion a blacklist is a list of people (held by a third party or exchanged between companies) that a company or group of companies would not employ for reasons that they cannot legal or lawfully keep on their personnel files, databases or records. I first became aware of blacklisting in 1997 when I was employed by Carillion Plc. I was told by Mr Gorman, Crown House HR manager that Carillion used the services of an external consultant called Ian Kerr to ensure that certain workers did not gain employment on their projects. Mr Gorman went on to explain that Mr Kerr provided this service to a number of other high profile companies and had collated a list of names from each of these companies over a period with a view to ensuring that those on the lists did not gain employment with other companies.”

2 Carillion statement in response to GMB report 11th June 2012

“Carillion does not condone or engage in blacklisting. It is not against unions and recognises trade unions for some of its workforce nationally.

These allegations of blacklisting are believed to concern matters that took place many years ago and relate to businesses acquired by Carillion. The law has changed significantly in the intervening period. Nonetheless, Carillion takes any allegation of this nature very seriously and is investigating. 

As these matters are also the subject of threatened legal proceedings it is not appropriate to comment in more detail at this stage except to confirm that Carillion will robustly defend any such proceedings”.

3 workers blacklisted by Carillion- where they lived or worked.