Action against the blacklist

A decade after the government introduced and subsequently shelved proposals for making the blacklisting of trade unionists illegal that we learn of the list funded by 40 major construction companies (Firms bought secret personal data on staff - privacy chief, 6 March).

What makes this even more outrageous is that many of these companies have benefited enormously from publicly funded capital projects. This includes Balfour Beatty (described on its company website as "a leader in the UK Public Private Partnerships market"), Amec (which made a considerable profit in 2005 through selling off its PFI equity stakes), and Laing O'Rourke (described on its website as being "at the forefront of NHS Procurement initiatives").

It is difficult to judge whether it was naivety or worse that allowed the government to accept employers' claims in 2003 that because blacklists did not exist there was no need to prohibit them.
Mike Sheaf

Presumably the construction companies who deny any wrongdoing in your report of the illegal activities of a former employee of the discredited Economic League ('Do not touch' - the covert database that kept union activists out of work, 6 March) will be investigating collusion in illegal activities by the managers and human resources officers.

If the companies concerned really wanted to distance themselves from this disgraceful action they would start by contributing to a fund to compensate those on the unlawful list - and finding employment for those who have been victimised in secret in this way. Until that is done, something more than a rap on the knuckles is needed. The information commissioner has taken action - what will the government do?
Jon Rogers
Member, Unison national executive council

I can well sympathise with Steve Acheson's feelings regarding blacklisting ('I hope it will open the doors for me to get back to work', 6 March), and have wondered myself in the past few years: "It's almost as if I've been blacklisted."

I too have suffered since 2002 and found it difficult to get work, even though a highly educated and experienced chartered engineer. But is it blacklisting or age discrimination? I note that Mr Acheson, like myself, is 55.

The discovery by the information commissioner of the blacklisting database is just the tip of the iceberg; if it's happened in one industry it will also have happened elsewhere.

So if you upset someone or an agency, you can be ruined for life - the knife in your back a fatal blow. Companies who deal in these tactics need to be made an example of and severely punished.
Phil Robinson
Torquay, Devon

In all the talk about how construction firms bought illegally acquired data on potential workers, nobody seems to have asked how such detailed profiles were obtained by the private detective Ian Kerr.

To be able to include details such as "poor timekeeper", "orchestrated strike action" and "lazy and a trouble-stirrer" Mr Kerr must have received information from firms who had employed these individuals - probably those very same firms who subscribed to his illegal and secret database. One hopes that what appears to be this larger conspiracy will not escape the attention of either the information commissioner or the police.
Keith Hearnden
Quorn, Leicestershire

The allegation that companies have bought information about workers to check out their attitudes and behaviour made me laugh.

How ironic that nobody thought of doing such vetting for the bosses and bank chiefs that have reduced the UK economy to ruins and pushed up unemployment.

Greed and recklessness are really undesirable attitudes to have. Why not blacklist those types, instead of workers who refuse to be doormats?
Graeme Kemp
Telford, Shropshire

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